Unfortunately the impacts of the Corona Virus and the most up-to-date measures to prevent spread have now been prolonged past the scheduled date of the NCBBA-Men’s National Championship (April 17-19). With that being said, it is with great disappointment to notify all NCBBA Men’s member teams and especially the recently crowned Regional Champions that we must cancel the 2020 National Championship Tournament scheduled to be held in South Bend, IN. With The White House issuing an extension to national social distancing guidelines through April 30th and Indiana currently being under a “Stay at Home” order, hosting this event has become an impossibility given the circumstances.

With 91% of the regular season having been completed prior to the outbreak, we have decided to crown a 2020 NCBBA-M National Champion based upon the merits earned over the course of the regular season.

• UMass-Lowell – Finished #1 in the New England North conference during regular season, posting an 18-0 Conference Record. They were also recognized as the #1 ranked team nationally in the latest Phenom Elite Top 20 Poll.

While we can all agree, this is certainly not how we envisioned or wanted this season to come to an end, it is the reality given the impact of COVID-19. We hope that you can join us in congratulating UMass-Lowell on a fantastic season. We thank you all for your continued support of the NCBBA and the love for the game.

We do wish we were in a much different state of the world and had much better news to provide. However, we have been optimistic throughout this process and will continue to do so. We hope that you can share in our optimism and know that we as a league will be better than ever in 2020-2021.

We will be in touch in the coming days and weeks with updates on this past season as well as the upcoming one. In the meantime, I encourage you all to participate in the All-American selection process by filling out the nomination form that was emailed to you. Also, be sure to tune into the NCBBA Annual League Meeting on April 22nd at 7pm EST. More details regarding that meeting will be sent out in the coming days. Also, please be sure to check your email regularly, as we will be in touch soon regarding plans moving forward to prepare for next season. If you have any questions in the meantime, please let us know. Stay safe!

Sincerely,

Sandy Sanderson
President
National Club Basketball Association

Unfortunately it appears the impact of the Corona Virus and the new measures to prevent spread have now impacted all regions of the NCBBA-M, and thus we will have to cancel all 6 regional playoffs due to not having any qualifying teams who are capable of competing during regional weekend (March 27-29).

That said we have decided to crown the following teams as Regional Champions based upon the merit earned over the course of the regular season.

New England – UMass-Lowell – Finished #1 in the North conference during regular season play and is ranked #1 nationally compared to Yale, Boston College and Cortland who all finished #1 in their respective conferences and finished nationally ranked #10, #11, and #15 respectively.

North Atlantic – Penn State – Finished #1 in the West conference during regular season play and is ranked #8 nationally compared to Montclair State, Niagara and Rowan-Gold who all finished #1 in their respective conferences and finished nationally ranked outside the Top 20.

Great Lakes – Ohio State – Finished #1 in the East conference during regular season play and is ranked #2 nationally compared to Notre Dame, Missouri and Indiana who all finished #1 in their respective conferences and finished nationally ranked #3, #4, and #6 respectively.

South Atlantic– South Carolina – Finished #1 in North conference during regular season play and is ranked #5 nationally compared to Florida State and Auburn who all finished #1 in their respective conferences and finished nationally ranked #7 and #16 respectively.

Mid-Atlantic – U.S. Naval Academy – Finished #1 in North conference during regular season play and is ranked #9 nationally compared to Maryland who finished #1 in the South conference and finished nationally ranked outside the Top 20.

Southern Pacific – Arizona State University-Downtown – Finished #1 in East conference during regular season play and is ranked #12 nationally compared to Stanford who finished #1 in the West conference and finished nationally ranked outside the Top 20.

The NCBBA-M is still optimistic that the National Championship will still be able to take place April 17-19.  Some people have asked why we haven’t bagged the entire season like the NCAA, but we are approaching this crisis with a sense of hope and optimism.  While we are preparing for the worst case scenario, it is easy (yet painful) to send an email and end the 2020 season.  What we are also doing is preparing for the BEST case scenario which is much harder.  IF this crisis were to improve quickly we would like to be in a position to still host a National Championship for those deserving, able, and willing to compete.  This will eventually end, life will eventually return to normal, and when it does we want to be able to help heal the psyche of our student athletes through sport as quickly as possible.  That said we are going to monitor status of the situation and on April 1^st reevaluate the situation and the possible feasibility of hosting the National Championship and make the call at that time.  If we are able to proceed with the National Championship, the regional champions mentioned above would receive automatic bids, as well as two necessary At-Large Bid invitees to get to a field of 8.

We wish we were coming to you in a much different state of the world, and we hope you share the same sense of hope and optimism we do.  Please be safe in these coming weeks and we will be in touch in early April with an update on our plans.

Sincerely,

Sandy Sanderson

President

National Club Basketball Association