The Uncertain Future of Sports

Picture this: it's February 2020, which allegedly was just two months ago. Much like the rest of America, we were operating in "normal" mode: attending our college classes, spending time in public, enjoying social gatherings. We decided we wanted to make a blog about the upcoming March Madness tournament, where we would use intricate algorithms, analytical findings, and a bit of common sense to give advice on how to make a winning bracket.

 

The scene of what was once a standard Wednesday night for basketball in March.

Even for the most prepared among us, what seemed like a realistic but distant risk swiftly became reality. On what was once a normal Wednesday night in early March, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz were minutes away from facing off in a potential playoffs preview. Abruptly, the game was suspended, Rudy Gobert was announced to have tested positive, and the NBA shut down its operations indefinitely. After this bombshell announcement, which occurred the same day that Tom Hanks tested positive, America was forever changed. There was a small period of uncertainty in terms of how other sports would follow, but it was quite clear that the writing was on the wall.

Here we are in late April 2020. The United States is somewhere in the middle of the "curve." Our state of Illinois is over a month into its stay-at-home order, which basically outlines that you're only supposed to leave the house for essential purposes. Deaths tolls across the nation are rising, and the global community is working tirelessly towards ramping up testing, tracing, treatment, and, of course, the highly-coveted vaccine.

Much is still unknown about the virus itself, and even the experts can't know everything. Arguably the biggest takeaway you can get from those public health experts is that we just don't know what will happen! The wisest thing that we can do is to operate off of what we do know – make estimations using our existing data, continue to explore and learn more about this pandemic, and keep in mind a wide range of possible outcomes, from near-normalcy in the fall to a drawn out, multi-year battle.

The Last Dance has revealed to us just how much we miss the sports world. Events like video game tournaments and H-O-R-S-E contests can try to seal the black hole-sized void the sports cancellations have left, but it of course will never be enough.

Head to your local park and there's a good chance you'll see something like this.

Our plan for this blog is to go in detail about how leagues' shutdowns are holding up. We want to look into when we could see partial, or complete, comebacks, and in what manner -- could there be no fans? Only a partial seasons/playoff tournament? Will teams be isolated in one area for weeks? Additionally, we'll explore what it means to each league's unique setup, from scheduling, to contracts, to the draft, to player development, and more. Finally, we want to know how it might affect seasons into the future, and if there will be permanent changes due to the crisis.

Public health will remain the first and foremost priority for the nation, and we all must do our part in staying home and practicing social distancing. As the rest of us root for our health care workers and essential employees from the bleachers, we are all patiently but anxiously waiting for the return of sports.