BREAKING: Big 12 Shutting Down Tournament to Spectators on Thursday

The Big 12 announced on Wednesday afternoon that they will not be allowing fans to attend the sessions of the Big 12 basketball tournament from Thursday until the end of the tournament this weekend due to COVID-19.

STILLWATER -- Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby met with the media in the Sprint Center in Kansas City and announced that the Big 12 is shutting down the Big 12 tournament to spectators starting Thursday due to COVID-19.

This news comes just a few hours after the NCAA passed down the ruling that upcoming NCAA basketball tournament, as well as the NCAA wrestling championships will be played without fans in the arenas for the duration of the tournaments.

The Big 12 Conference also released a statement shortly after the news broke:

"The priority of the Big 12 Conference is to ensure the safety of our students, coaches, administrators, event staff and fans.

After careful consideration and consulting with medical officials, other conferences, the NCAA and local officials, the Big 12 Conference announced that after tonight’s men’s first round games, all remaining Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championship games will be played with only family, friends, credentialed media and essential staff permitted in the arenas."

Wednesday night's games of No. 8 Oklahoma State vs. No. 9 Iowa State and No. 7 TCU vs. No. 10 Kansas State will go ahead as planned. So, if you have tickets to Wednesday's games, you will be able to get in. But starting Thursday, the games will be limited to essential personnel and limited family only, just as the upcoming NCAA tournament and wrestling championships.

Essential personnel being the team, coaching staff and trainers, everyone at the scorers table, the credentialed media and then each team will be allotted 125 tickets for what will essentially be limited family members only.

Andy Katz is also reporting that the NIT will happen, but as the NIT is owned by the NCAA, he is reporting no crowds for that event.

Will it's certainly not ideal for fans that had purchased tickets and had planned on attending the Big 12 tournament, news came out Tuesday that the Ivy League had cancelled their conference tournament all together.

This could also have a massive impact on the upcoming opening of Cowboy baseball's O'Brate Stadium, as well as potentially affecting the upcoming NCAA tennis championships being held in Stillwater.

The office of Burns Hargis, the President of Oklahoma State, released this message to students on Tuesday:

"The health and well-being of our campus community are paramount to all of us as we continue to closely monitor the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We are coordinating closely with our colleagues at OU and following the guidance of local, state, national and global health officials as we contemplate the timing of contingency plans and next steps.

While no decision to do so has been made, we are exploring the possibility of moving our in-person classes at both Stillwater and Tulsa campuses online for two weeks following spring break as a contingency plan to protect our campus community as best we can.

Students are advised to take any course materials and devices with them as they leave for spring break in the event that face-to-face instruction moves to online learning for a time. Resources will be made available to students and faculty should we suspend in-person instruction."

This came the same day as the announcement from universities such as Harvard that they will not be letting students back on campus following spring break and will be moving to online courses.