﻿{"id":421726,"date":"2020-03-16T09:39:20","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T16:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=421726"},"modified":"2020-03-16T09:58:55","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T16:58:55","slug":"commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FOMO: Fear of missing out. Nearly everyone has experienced that feeling of disappointment when they miss out on an important event in their lives. Whether it\u2019s a game, a meet, a life event, the feeling is the same. It\u2019s a loss of an opportunity. In most cases it\u2019s for a singular reason; an injury, an illness, an inopportune outcome.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday, all Americans got the same message about their beloved sports, boiled down to two words: Game Over!<\/p>\n<p>For women\u2019s varsity water polo players across the U.S., this was perhaps inevitable news. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/story\/_\/id\/28908241\/mark-emmert-rudy-gobert-positive-test-was-exclamation-point-ncaa-tourney-hopes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">catalyst<\/a> was <strong>Rudy Gobert<\/strong>, an NBA player, who tested positive for COVID-19\u2014resulting in the entire league suspending its operations. Most professional sports quickly followed suit.<\/p>\n<p>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/big-west-maac-pac-12-presidents-vote-to-suspend-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Like Dominos Falling: Big West, MAAC, Pac-12 Presidents Vote to Suspend Seasons<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The Ivy league cancelled its basketball tournament and schools like Harvard and Stanford were the first to cancel in person instruction and encouraged students to leave campus. The NCAA announced that its flagship event, the Men\u2019s &#8220;March Madness&#8221; Basketball Championship, would go on, but without fans. But, a trickle quickly became a tidal wave of cancellations, and the classification of the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic forced the NCAA to cancel not only the tournament, but winter and spring championships for all sports.<\/p>\n<p>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/mercado-on-cancellation-of-the-ivies-spring-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Brown Water Polo\u2019s Felix Mercado on Cancellation of Ivy Athletics: Doomsday for Our Season<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>Pandemic is on everyone&#8217;s mind<\/h3>\n<p>We\u2019ve all become budding public health experts in the last few weeks, learning\u2014and applying with a practiced expertise\u2014terms such as suppressed immunity, social distance, and pandemic. There\u2019s no doubt in my mind that this is the right decision to protect the health and well-being of the entire planet.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"422739\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/ncaa-cancellation\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1500,707\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"ncaa-cancellation\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;ncaa-cancellation&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-700x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-1024x483.jpg\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-422739\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-700x500.jpg\" alt=\"ncaa-cancellation\" width=\"575\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-1024x483.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-280x132.jpg 280w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-300x141.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-450x212.jpg 450w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-1200x566.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-150x71.jpg 150w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-500x236.jpg 500w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation-533x251.jpg 533w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ncaa-cancellation.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/>But, there&#8217;s also no question that this is an unprecedented situation in our lifetimes. For nearly 20 years, I expected that the most historic moment I would live through was the 9\/11 attacks on New York City&#8217;s World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. But, recent events transcend that incredible moment. The COVID-19 crisis will ultimately affect millions and change the trajectory of more lives than anything that has happened before.<\/p>\n<p>Sports have always been a part of my life\u2014as a student-athlete, a parent, a coach, an official, an announcer, and recently, as a writer. I enjoy competition as a participant and a spectator. It\u2019s always been an outlet for me, physically and emotionally. I\u2019ve been involved in college water polo in some form or fashion since the 1970\u2019s. And I\u2019ve participated in NCAA championships in many ways, most recently as a writer for <em>Swimming World<\/em>. There is nothing more intense and exciting than championship water polo.<\/p>\n<p>The current season in NCAA women\u2019s water polo was shaping up to be one of the most compelling in years. There were the usual suspects; Stanford, USC and UCLA, at the top, despite missing national team players were rounding into form. They were developing new roles for players and starting to gel as the conference seasons were beginning.<\/p>\n<p>There were programs that had assembled a crop of talented players, including UC Irvine, Hawaii and Arizona State\u2014all of whom had hopes of crashing the top four. And, there were lots of compelling questions that ultimately get answered in 25 meters of water and 32 minutes of game time, the most important being: Who is better?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_422741\" style=\"width: 385px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-422741\" data-attachment-id=\"422741\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/liu-empty-basketball-mar20\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2059,2200\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 8&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1584177822&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;3.99&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;50&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.066666666666667&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"LIU-empty-basketball-mar20\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;LIU-empty-basketball-mar20&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Photo Courtesy: M. Randazzo&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-700x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-958x1024.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-422741\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-700x500.jpg\" alt=\"LIU-empty-basketball-mar20\" width=\"375\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-958x1024.jpg 958w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-187x200.jpg 187w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-1438x1536.jpg 1438w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-1917x2048.jpg 1917w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-300x321.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-450x481.jpg 450w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-1200x1282.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-2000x2137.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-842x900.jpg 842w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-150x160.jpg 150w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-468x500.jpg 468w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-basketball-mar20-533x569.jpg 533w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-422741\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Courtesy: M. Randazzo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I feel for the seniors who have no senior day, or last practice, or last game to play. I feel for the coaches who were getting ready for the stretch run of the conference season and the final tournaments. I feel for the officials who were working to earn a spot at conference tournaments and the NCAAs. The women&#8217;s season begins in the fall with conditioning and few, if any games, and plays through the relative cold of winter in outdoor games in California, which aren&#8217;t exactly balmy.<\/p>\n<p>After the daylight savings time change in March, the season ramps up, the key games get played and everyone finds out who&#8217;s best. That&#8217;s the answer to the riddle that I love to see answered each season. Of course, there are more important things than this, but it&#8217;s what makes our game great.<\/p>\n<p>To have it taken away\u2014for now\u2014will make it even more valuable when we get it back. Every other sport is going through a similar variation of this theme. And most of us are going through a giant reset for the foreseeable future. In my case I have no games to announce, nothing to watch or write about, and had two graduate students move into my house because their schools have wisely gone to remote instruction.<\/p>\n<p>We are hunkered down for the duration&#8230; whatever that turns out to be.<\/p>\n<h3>Season Rewind: The P Word<\/h3>\n<p>At the Barbara Kalbus Invitational in February, USC head coach <strong>Marko Pintaric<\/strong> and UCLA&#8217;s <strong>Adam Wrigh<\/strong>t, with a combined 45 years of experience in NCAA water polo, both alluded to the &#8220;P&#8221; word\u2014parity\u2014to describe the 2020 women\u2019s water polo season. The first two months of the season gave a glimpse of the possibilities: UC Santa Barbara beating UCLA and UCSD beating CAL. Stanford, despite a single loss, had already survived narrow one-goal matches against UCI and ASU, which is remarkable considering their history of dominance over those programs.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_418632\" style=\"width: 335px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-418632\" data-attachment-id=\"418632\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/usc-upsets-cwpa-top-25-womens-water-polo-rankings\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1560,2200\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5.6&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;MINETTE RUBIN&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;NIKON D500&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1580527042&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;350&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;1100&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.000625&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20 2, FRESNO STATE, UCLA WWP&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Photo Courtesy: Minette Rubin&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-700x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-726x1024.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-418632\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-700x500.jpg\" alt=\"pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20\" width=\"325\" height=\"458\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-726x1024.jpg 726w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-142x200.jpg 142w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-1089x1536.jpg 1089w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-1452x2048.jpg 1452w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-300x423.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-450x635.jpg 450w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-1200x1692.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-638x900.jpg 638w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-150x212.jpg 150w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-355x500.jpg 355w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20-533x752.jpg 533w, https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/pintaric-usc-rubin-feb20.jpg 1560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-418632\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">USC&#8217;s Marko Pintaric. Photo Courtesy: Minette Rubin<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Big West was shaping up for a great season of competition. Just last weekend, Cal State Northridge took UCSB to overtime before falling, while Long Beach State held off newcomer UCSD in a low scoring battle. UCI picked off California last week to go 2-1 against the Bears in 2020 and was set to square off with UCLA this coming weekend before mass cancellations.<\/p>\n<p>It is a shame that the 2020 season is like a best selling author\u2019s unfinished manuscript: an intriguing start, but a premature, and unfulfilling ending. Many of the factors that contributed to these conditions will revert to status quo in 2021, when the national teamers return to their college teams, and recreate the talent gap between the top five and everyone else.\u00a0 So the question of who&#8217;s best this year will go unanswered\u2014and the 2020 season will be marked with a grade of incomplete.<\/p>\n<p><em><span class=\"st\"> All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FOMO: Fear of missing out. Nearly everyone has experienced that feeling of disappointment when they miss out on an important event in their lives. Whether it\u2019s a game, a meet,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7841,"featured_media":422742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[122083,383,51189,66876,75320,120856,121252,549,1465,66960,378,2451,251,122082,327,122017,4164,60916,61,3231,328,122084],"class_list":["post-421726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-college","tag-9-11","tag-adam-wright","tag-arizona-state","tag-bill-cohn","tag-cal-state-northridge","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-harvard","tag-hawaii","tag-march-madness","tag-marko-pintaric","tag-nba","tag-ncaa","tag-rudy-gobert","tag-stanford","tag-the-ivy-league","tag-uc-irvine","tag-uc-santa-barbara","tag-ucla","tag-ucsd","tag-usc","tag-world-trade-towers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal - Swimming World<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thursday, all Americans got the same message about their beloved sports\u2014from basketball to water polo\u2014boiled down to two words: Game Over!\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thursday, all Americans got the same message about their beloved sports\u2014from basketball to water polo\u2014boiled down to two words: Game Over!\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-16T16:39:20+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-16T16:58:55+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2200\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1445\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill Cohn\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@billc707\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bill Cohn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bill Cohn\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f0ed1d421610cddd69befe5e8c86d059\"},\"headline\":\"Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-16T16:39:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-16T16:58:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/\"},\"wordCount\":1104,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"9\/11\",\"Adam Wright\",\"Arizona State\",\"Bill Cohn\",\"Cal State Northridge\",\"coronavirus\",\"Covid-19\",\"Harvard\",\"Hawaii\",\"March Madness\",\"Marko Pintaric\",\"NBA\",\"NCAA\",\"Rudy Gobert\",\"Stanford\",\"The Ivy League\",\"UC Irvine\",\"UC Santa Barbara\",\"UCLA\",\"UCSD\",\"USC\",\"World Trade Towers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"-Home Slider\",\"College\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/\",\"name\":\"Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal - Swimming World\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-16T16:39:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-16T16:58:55+00:00\",\"description\":\"Thursday, all Americans got the same message about their beloved sports\u2014from basketball to water polo\u2014boiled down to two words: Game Over!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg\",\"width\":2200,\"height\":1445,\"caption\":\"Erie stillness is what's on tap at polo venues all over America. Photo Courtesy: M. Randazzo\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"description\":\"The Global Leader in Aquatic News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"width\":1799,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Swimming World\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f0ed1d421610cddd69befe5e8c86d059\",\"name\":\"Bill Cohn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/13d173fda273877807e6b81fb06d75da?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/13d173fda273877807e6b81fb06d75da?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Bill Cohn\"},\"description\":\"Bill Cohn has been around Water Polo as a player, coach, official, and announcer for 40 years. He attended UCLA as a two-sport student-athlete playing Water Polo and Junior varsity basketball for the Bruins. His postgraduate water polo playing career spanned nearly a decade and included US national club level competition while representing the Westwood, Industry Hills, and Sunset Clubs. Cohn gained international experience as a player-coach in Australia and represented the USA in the 1985 Maccabiah Games where his team won a silver medal. He was an Assistant Men's Water Polo Coach at Palomar College in San Diego. Additionally, Cohn was a college-rated water polo official from 1986 to 1992. Most recently, Bill served 5 seasons as the Assistant Coach for the San Diego State University Women's Water Polo team from 2014 through 2019. Cohn has announced College Water Polo and Swimming since 1990. He currently serves as the voice of the UC San Diego Tritons in Water Polo, Swimming, Basketball and Volleyball. He has also worked in play-by-play and analyst roles for men's and women's NCAA Water polo championship webcasts since 2010. Cohn earned a B.A. in economics from UCLA and served as a swim parent to son Michael, who swam for UC San Diego and in the 2016 Olympic Trials.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/billc707\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/bill-cohn\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal - Swimming World","description":"Thursday, all Americans got the same message about their beloved sports\u2014from basketball to water polo\u2014boiled down to two words: Game Over!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal","og_description":"Thursday, all Americans got the same message about their beloved sports\u2014from basketball to water polo\u2014boiled down to two words: Game Over!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/","og_site_name":"Swimming World","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","article_published_time":"2020-03-16T16:39:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-03-16T16:58:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2200,"height":1445,"url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Bill Cohn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@billc707","twitter_site":"@swimmingworld","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bill Cohn","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/"},"author":{"name":"Bill Cohn","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f0ed1d421610cddd69befe5e8c86d059"},"headline":"Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal","datePublished":"2020-03-16T16:39:20+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-16T16:58:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/"},"wordCount":1104,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg","keywords":["9\/11","Adam Wright","Arizona State","Bill Cohn","Cal State Northridge","coronavirus","Covid-19","Harvard","Hawaii","March Madness","Marko Pintaric","NBA","NCAA","Rudy Gobert","Stanford","The Ivy League","UC Irvine","UC Santa Barbara","UCLA","UCSD","USC","World Trade Towers"],"articleSection":["-Home Slider","College"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/","name":"Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal - Swimming World","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg","datePublished":"2020-03-16T16:39:20+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-16T16:58:55+00:00","description":"Thursday, all Americans got the same message about their beloved sports\u2014from basketball to water polo\u2014boiled down to two words: Game Over!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg","width":2200,"height":1445,"caption":"Erie stillness is what's on tap at polo venues all over America. Photo Courtesy: M. Randazzo"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/commentary-2020-spring-season-cancelled-by-ncaa-is-not-the-new-normal\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Commentary: 2020 Spring Season Cancelled by NCAA is NOT the New Normal"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","name":"Swimming World","description":"The Global Leader in Aquatic News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Swimming World","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","width":1799,"height":900,"caption":"Swimming World"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld","https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f0ed1d421610cddd69befe5e8c86d059","name":"Bill Cohn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/13d173fda273877807e6b81fb06d75da?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/13d173fda273877807e6b81fb06d75da?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"Bill Cohn"},"description":"Bill Cohn has been around Water Polo as a player, coach, official, and announcer for 40 years. He attended UCLA as a two-sport student-athlete playing Water Polo and Junior varsity basketball for the Bruins. His postgraduate water polo playing career spanned nearly a decade and included US national club level competition while representing the Westwood, Industry Hills, and Sunset Clubs. Cohn gained international experience as a player-coach in Australia and represented the USA in the 1985 Maccabiah Games where his team won a silver medal. He was an Assistant Men's Water Polo Coach at Palomar College in San Diego. Additionally, Cohn was a college-rated water polo official from 1986 to 1992. Most recently, Bill served 5 seasons as the Assistant Coach for the San Diego State University Women's Water Polo team from 2014 through 2019. Cohn has announced College Water Polo and Swimming since 1990. He currently serves as the voice of the UC San Diego Tritons in Water Polo, Swimming, Basketball and Volleyball. He has also worked in play-by-play and analyst roles for men's and women's NCAA Water polo championship webcasts since 2010. Cohn earned a B.A. in economics from UCLA and served as a swim parent to son Michael, who swam for UC San Diego and in the 2016 Olympic Trials.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/billc707"],"url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/bill-cohn\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Sports venues throughout America have gone dark as a result of the coronavirus health crisis. Photo Courtesy: M. Randazzo","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LIU-empty-goal-mar20.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p56Jja-1LI2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7841"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}