Kansas Basketball: 2020-2021 season in jeopardy due to COVID-19 pandemic

Kansas basketball might have a tough time playing a full 2020-2021 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen coronavirus cases surge in the Midwest. This week, we’ve seen the University of Kansas suspend fan attendances and even postpone their home contest vs. Texas. The real concern for the Kansas Jayhawks should be whether or not they’ll see a full 2020-21 basketball season.

Kansas basketball is set to begin on November 26th in Fort Myers, Florida and currently, the Jayhawks are facing a health threat in their home region. While the University has kept cases in their community relatively low, this doesn’t include all fans who wear the crimson and blue.

Many surrounding areas such as Johnson County and particularly the Kansas City metro area have seen a largely concerning rising in coronavirus cases in the last month.

This puts Jayhawk’s season in an uneasy spot. Sure, you might be thinking the solution is to not allow fans until the numbers begin to lower, although we should take a look at how this will affect the National scene.

Across the US, we’re seeing problematic situations concerning hospital capacities and medical supplies. With a crisis in this field, it does not leave much financial slack for the entertainment community, nor should it.

Kansas has a solid amount of travel to be done if it wants to finish its 2020-21 season and it can be a difficult process to organize away game travel and accommodations. This becomes even more expensive as a result of the pandemic.

The opening week of college basketball is going to show how prepared we are. If we see cases popping up across conferences, this could be a drastic situation for college basketball.

Kansas is set to play most away contests in their native conference of the Big 12, with travel stretching only as far as Morgantown, West Virginia. However, this is still plenty of distance to place the team at risk, accounting for the wide footprint of the virus.

On a much lighter note, if we do see an improvement in the region, this could allow for more amble time upon the arrival of a potential vaccine. If cases can be lowered, we will probably see more opportunities for fans to attend games.

Kansas has already planned to allow fans at Allen Fieldhouse for the upcoming season, limiting capacity to 1,500 total patrons. After the recent decision to prohibit fans from the remaining November events, University Chancellor Doug Girod stated that Kansas will evaluate its plans for December moving forward.

Unless the Midwest can see a drop in the spread, the length of college basketball is looking very blurry. With the National Tournament relocated entirely to Indianapolis, it will be a tricky situation for schools leading up to the tourney.

I think we should expect Kansas to be able to start their season, and it will be dependent on the conferences to enforce and control coronavirus threats if they expect to play a full season. Without the right precautions, the Jayhawks might be in another awful situation come March.