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The Suspicion is No Sports on Campus for a Month, but Oklahoma State has not Made an Announcement

Nothing this weekend on the Oklahoma State campus, but best guess is this will go on for at least a month.
Robert Allen|
The Suspicion is No Sports on Campus for a Month, but Oklahoma State has not Made an Announcement
The Suspicion is No Sports on Campus for a Month, but Oklahoma State has not Made an Announcement

STILLWATER -- It was shortly after the Big 12 Conference announced that both the men's and women's championship basketball tournaments had been cancelled that the word began filtering in that events on the Oklahoma State campus were being cancelled as well. Softball, baseball, tennis, and equestrian have already been impacted. 

The No. 11-ranked Oklahoma State Cowgirls softball team was scheduled to begin play today in a schedule-changed Cowgirls Invitational Tournament with a doubleheader against Western Illinois. I was scheduled to do the play-by-play for the games today and a game on Friday between the Cowgirls and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. We already knew the schedule was changed because Columbia University was scheduled to be in the tournament. They pulled out when the Ivy League cancelled spring sports for the rest of the school year. 

Oklahoma State baseball was scheduled to host Fresno State for a weekend series, the final three games at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium before the scheduled grand opening a week from Friday of the sparkling new and extravagant O'Brate Stadium. The games this weekend are cancelled. 

Women's tennis was scheduled to travel to Manhattan, Kansas and Lawrence for matches with the Wildcats and Jayhawks. Those matches are cancelled and the Cowgirls were not allowed to depart and then later told he matches were off. 

Equestrian was scheduled to host Fresno State and also have a celebratory event dedicating the new outdoor arena and new equestrian facilities. That is also cancelled. 

All of the major and mid-major conference basketball tournaments scheduled have been cancelled and the NCAA Basketball Championships for men and women as well as the NIT Tournaments are already restricted to few fans with only necessary personnel and limited family allowed at those games. Those events have to be in question. 

Kansas would be the overall top seed for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, but KU athletic director Jeff Long has already put Jayhawks athletics on indefinite suspension. 

“Our highest priority at Kansas Athletics is to ensure the safety and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches and staff,” Long said in a statement. “Based on the recommendation of our medical professionals, we have canceled all athletic travel indefinitely. In addition, all home and away athletics events have been suspended indefinitely. We will continue to monitor the situation and determine the next appropriate steps based on advice from our medical team.”

That includes practices and you know as well as I do that if there was a good possibility that the NCAA Tournament was going to be played that I doubt Long would have made his move effectively rendering Kansas out of the event. 

Kansas basketball head coach Bill Self, an Oklahoma State alum and former assistant coach for the Cowboys understood the cancellation of the Big 12 Tournament.

“As I said yesterday, this is bigger than a sport or championship,” Self said. I know our medical staff and the NCAA will research all avenues to determine the appropriate steps moving forward.”

Kansas was scheduled to start spring football on March 17, next Tuesday, but that won't happen. I remember well that KU head coach Les Miles when he was at Oklahoma State was not wanting to cancel the game with Northern Arizona scheduled the Saturday after the "9-11" tragedy. Of course, that became a national decision. I'm guessing Miles will be chomping at the bit to practice. 

And how about this? Bill Self told Scott Van Pelt of ESPN that the Jayhawks weren't out of consideration for the NCAA Tournament, just in "a holding pattern."

Now, the wait continues for a more permanent decision from Oklahoma State. The individual from the athletic department that notified me that the softball games were cancelled told me he did not know anything further about Cowboys and Cowgirls sports. 

At last word, the Big 12 followed up their meetings in Kansas City and the decision to cancel championship events for the near future including the equestrian championship in Waco and the Big 12 Gymnastics Championships in Morgantown, W.V. with a conference call to establish a conference wide decision. The Kansas announcement could be foreshadowing on that. The Pac-12, SEC, ACC, Conference USA, and Big West have put spring sports on hold, either indefinitely or for somewhere around a month period.

Not only are the NBA, NHL, and Major League soccer in suspension of play, but now Major League Baseball has suspended spring training and pushed back the start of the season for two weeks before they will re-access the situation.

I understand all of this and the health and well-being of participants and spectators alike is of the utmost importance. All I would encourage through all of this is obey authorities, but choose to live your life. 

In the meantime, when we will see sports back on the Oklahoma State campus or official word that we won't for sometime, we wait. We do know that the campus will be closed and classes will be on-line only for the two weeks after spring break. The period between March 23-April 6.   

  

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Robert Allen
ROBERT ALLEN

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