2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament


The 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament was a planned single-elimination tournament of 68 teams to determine the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college basketball national champion for the 2019–20 season. It would have been the 82nd edition of the tournament. It was scheduled to begin on March 17, 2020, and would have concluded with the championship game on April 6 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
On March 12, the tournament, as well as all other NCAA championships for the remainder of the academic season, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. It was the first time the tournament had been cancelled since its creation in 1939.

Schedule and venues

The following list contains the sites that would be selected to host each round of the 2020 tournament:
First Four
First and Second Rounds
Regional Semifinals and Finals
National Semifinals and Championship
The timing of the tournament coincided with the wider spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak in the United States. On March 10, the Ivy League announced it had cancelled the conference's tournament, and would award its championship and automatic qualification to Yale based on regular season records. Harvard University was scheduled to host the event at Lavietes Pavilion in Boston on March 14 and 15. Some conferences subsequently announced they would go on with their tournaments while holding their games behind closed doors with no outside spectators and limited attendance, especially on March 11.
The NCAA subsequently announced it would go on with its winter-sport championships, including its basketball tournaments, with attendance limited to essential staff and family members. Some venues enacted further local numerical restrictions on the numbers of those who could attend an event, which the NCAA agreed to respect. Reports also stated that for practicality reasons, the NCAA was considering re-locating some of the later rounds to smaller venues within the same host cities.
On March 11, the NBA suspended its regular season after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert was diagnosed with COVID-19. On the same night, Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg fell visibly ill during the first round of the Big Ten tournament. There were initial fears that Hoiberg had COVID-19, but he was ultimately diagnosed with influenza A. The following day, due in part to Gobert's diagnosis and the scare over Hoiberg, all conferences that had not yet concluded tournament play announced they would be scrapping their tournaments. Many of them had announced they would play without fans, but it was decided to scrap play altogether. With the decision to cancel the 2020 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament, all games that had yet to be played in the basketball season were cancelled, while the Big East called off its tournament at halftime during a quarter-final game between Creighton and St. John's. Most major conferences also announced suspensions of all athletics to varying degrees. Later in the day, the NCAA announced the tournament would be cancelled, along with all remaining winter and spring championships for the academic year.
The NCAA had not ruled out publishing what would have been its at-large selections and bracket. Vice president of men's basketball Dan Gavitt told the Associated Press that he had proposed holding a shortened, 16-team tournament in Atlanta as an alternative, with all participants chosen by the selection committee, before the decision was made to cancel the entire tournament due to Rudy Gobert's diagnosis. The NCAA ultimately decided against releasing any brackets, with Gavitt stating, "Brackets based on hypotheticals can’t substitute for a complete selection, seeding and bracketing process."
As part of a cycle that began in 2016, TBS was scheduled to televise the 2020 Final Four and national championship game. CBS was scheduled to televise the selection show. CBS Sports and Turner Sports announced on March 16 that all technicians and utility staff who were expected to work the NCAA March Madness coverage would still be paid. Radio rightsholder Westwood One announced plans to offer encores of radio broadcasts from classic NCAA tournament games—accompanied by interviews with notable figures from the respective games—to fill the time slots it had originally devoted to the tournament. CBS similarly announced on March 19 that it would also air nine classic Final Four games across the weekend afternoons of March 21, 22, and 29.
Television channels, studio hosts, studio analysts, and commentary teams

  • First Four – TruTV
  • First and Second Rounds – CBS, TBS, TNT, and TruTV
  • Regional Semifinals and Final – CBS and TBS
  • National Semifinals and Championship – TBS
Studio hosts
  • Greg Gumbel – First Round, Second Round, Regionals, Final Four and National Championship Game
  • Ernie Johnson – First Round, Second Round, Regional Semi-Finals, Final Four and National Championship Game
  • Adam Zucker – First Four, First Round and Second Round
  • Adam Lefkoe - First Round and Second Round
    • Studio analysts
  • Charles Barkley – First Round, Second Round, Regionals, Final Four and National Championship Game
  • Seth Davis – First Four, First Round, Second Round, Regional Semi-Finals, Final Four and National Championship Game
  • Brendan Haywood – First Four, First Round, Second Round and Regional Semi-Finals
  • Clark Kellogg – First Round, Second Round, Regionals, Final Four and National Championship Game
  • Candace Parker – First Four, First Round, Second Round and Regional Semi-Finals
  • Kenny Smith – First Round, Second Round, Regionals, Final Four and National Championship Game
  • Gene Steratore – First Four, First Round, Second Round, Regionals, Final Four and National Championship Game
  • Dwyane Wade – Final Four and National Championship Game
    • Commentary teams
  • Jim Nantz/Bill Raftery/Grant Hill/Tracy Wolfson – Final Four and National Championship at Atlanta, Georgia
  • Brian Anderson/Chris Webber/Allie LaForce
  • Ian Eagle/Jim Spanarkel/Jamie Erdahl
  • Kevin Harlan/Reggie Miller/Dan Bonner/Dana Jacobson
  • Brad Nessler/Jim Jackson/Steve Lavin /Evan Washburn – First Four at Dayton, Ohio
  • Spero Dedes/Steve Smith/Wally Szczerbiak/Lisa Byington
  • Andrew Catalon/Steve Lappas/Steve Lavin /Lauren Shehadi or Lisa Byington – First Four at Dayton, Ohio
  • Carter Blackburn/Debbie Antonelli/John Schriffen

    • Automatic qualifiers

    The following teams had automatically qualified for the 2020 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament. All conference tournaments that had not been completed were cancelled, the majority of which without naming an automatic qualifier.