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The Atlantic Coast Conference has canceled a tournament game between No. 16 Virginia and Georgia Tech because of a positive COVID-19 test for people in the Virginia program.
The ACC announced the cancellation Friday morning, less than 12 hours before the teams were set to play the semifinal. That means Georgia Tech will advance to Saturday’s championship game to face the winner of the North Carolina-Florida State matchup. It’s unclear if Virginia will be able to play in the NCAA tournament due to the positive COVID-19 test.
The cancellation came a day after Duke withdrew from the tournament and ended its season because of its own positive test before facing the Seminoles in the quarterfinals.
In addition, another college basketball powerhouse, the University of Kentucky, is likely to miss March Madness as well. Kentucky’s absence is because the team underperformed this year; it is not coronavirus-related.
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With three of the biggest programs possibly out of the March Madness tournament, will there be less interest in the games?
The simplest way to measure interest in games is how how many people watch.
“I don’t really think UVA (University of Virginia) moves the NCAA hoops TV ratings needle. Kentucky, for all its rich hoops history, doesn’t move the national ratings needle as much as Duke,” Robert Seidman, operator of the @SportsTVRatings account on Twitter TWTR, -1.35% wrote to MarketWatch.
Even though Duke is the most notable of the teams missing the tournament, Seidman doesn’t believe the mere presence of Duke is a game-changer for ratings either.
“There’s a huge difference between having Duke in the final and not having Duke in the tournament.”
It would not be a shock if the overall tournament ratings decline anyway, Seidman said. This would be consistent with other ratings drops over the past 12 months during the pandemic with big sporting events like the NBA Finals and the Super Bowl.
The Selection Sunday show for March Madness is set for March 14 and will air on CBS VIAC, +10.04%.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
