Sooner sports: All OU spring sports have been cancelled
By Chip Rouse
The Oklahoma Sooner sports season for the 2019-20 officially came to end on Friday with the announcement by the Big 12 Conference that all spring sports competitions are cancelled through the end of the academic year.
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This includes those athletic programs, like outdoor track and field, baseball and softball, that extend beyond the academic year cycle.
The past 24 hours have produced unprecedented stoppages of practically all professional and college sports over growing concerns about the rapid spread of the potentially deadly coronavirus.
The first shoe to drop, insofar as Oklahoma sports activities is concerned, was the decision by the Big 12 on Thursday to cancel the annual conference basketball tournaments for both the men and the women. Both the Sooner men’s team and the women’s squad were in Kansas City and set to play tournament games on Thursday.
The OU men seeded third in the Big 12 men’s tournament and were set to play No. 6 West Virginia. The Lady Sooners were the No. 9 seed in the women’s tournament and scheduled to face No. 9 Oklahoma State. Instead, both squads packed up and headed back to Norman on Thursday.
The NCAA had already said it would hold all March Madness games without the general public in attendance, and on Thursday, it was decided to cancel the NCAA Basketball Tournament all together. Oklahoma was likely to have received an at-large bid to participate in the tournament, which would have been the Sooners seventh appearance in the last eight years.
As part of the Big 12 announcement to cancel the conference basketball tournaments and all spring sports competition, organized team activities and practices for off-season programs, like football, have been suspended until March 29, when the situation will be re-evaluated.
The NCAA is considering extending an additional year of eligibility to student-athletes on spring sports teams to make up for the season lost because of the coronavirus outbreak.
There is no decision at this time whether the annual spring game will be held. One of the main highlights that was planned for the spring game, which is scheduled for April 18, is the unveiling of Baker Mayfield’s Heisman statue, which will ultimately join the Sooners’ other bronze statues in Heisman Park just east of Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium.
A statement issued by the University of Oklahoma athletic department, said:
"“This rapidly developing situation has warranted consideration of many factors, and the health and welfare of people we serves is at the forefront of all of our deliberations.”"
The OU spring sports and carryover winter sports affected by the cancellation decision include men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, baseball, softball and rowing.