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The men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament is still expected to be played as scheduled

This is great news for college basketball.

NCAA BASKETBALL: MAR 24 Div I Men’s Championship - Second Round - Liberty v Virginia Tech Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

We have seen a lot of college basketball games being cancelled or postponed so far this season due to Covid-19 issues.

These cancellations have a lot of people wondering if we will still get a normal NCAA Tournament in 2022.

Andy Katz of NCAA.com spoke with NCAA senior vice president, Dan Gavitt, who said that both the men’s and women’s tournaments are still scheduled to go on as planned with the normal format.

“Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president in charge of basketball, said there has been no discussion of going back to a bubble at this point like what occurred last March during the pandemic.”

The difference this season is the fact that the season started on time and now we have a lot more ways to combat the virus including vaccines and boosters.

“At this point, we are continuing the planning for the NCAA basketball championships with the normal format, schedule and multiple host sites,’’ said Gavitt.

He continued, “We are certainly closely monitoring the unfortunate and sudden COVID spike and will consider any adjustments as necessary for the health, safety and success of the championships. However, despite the current challenges we’re experiencing in college basketball, the solutions to these problems during this phase of the pandemic are likely quite different than the dramatic championship format changes we had to adopt last year.”

It is important to note that conferences, not the NCAA, is in control of the regular season and determining if a team can play a game or not. Also, the NCAA does not mandate how the schools test.

You can check out everything Gavitt had to say about the college basketball season and the upcoming NCAA Tournament here.