Lea: Why no fans at college basketball games this season is the way to go

By Chris lea, WRAL-TV Sports anchor/reporter

Raleigh, N.C. — My first day at WRAL was March 4th. The day was full of shaking hands, meeting new people, hearing new names and filling out the necessary tax documents, which was a whirlwind.

Three days later was my first time covering a North Carolina vs Duke rivalry game at Cameron Indoor Stadium and also my on air debut for WRAL. I had covered 'Battle of the Blues' games at the Dean Smith Center before during my time at WXII in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem market, but nothing is like covering that game at Cameron.

I've been to Cameron before to cover games, but it just felt like more people were in attendance for that game. The amount of media is ridiculous as well. I've never been in such a cramped space to cover a game. Plus, having to climb over the courtside media tables to take a seat or to go back to the media area, while also trying not to kick or knock yourself into Cameron Crazies was one of the strangest experiences I've ever had. Don't get me started on how cramped the visiting locker room is.

But being that cramped, being that close, having to climb over a table in dress clothes is what made that experience and covering that game magical.

Five days after that, I was in my hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina at the ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum as sports was starting to be canceled rapidly. After that we all started hearing something for the first time: "social distancing".

Many of the people I met the week prior on my first day at WRAL I never got a chance to see again, even to this day, because of the company's COVID-19 protocols that called for social distancing and many folks working remotely or from home. Here we are, seven months later and COVID-19 is still impacting our nation and even starting to spike again. Right now, we are less than a month from college basketball tipping off for the 2020-21 season, which is sure to be very different.

Basketball, being a full contact indoor sport certainly has a chance to be a source of COVID-19 spread amongst players. Duke has already said their men's basketball team has had no positives. But back in Greensboro, UNCG and NC A&T's men's basketball teams had to be quarantined because of positive COVID-19 tests. Football teams have had their troubles, but have mostly been able to contend with the virus simply because of the 85 scholarship players teams have. Basketball, on the other hand, only has 13 scholarship players. So having five players needing to quarantine due to positive tests or contact tracing could decimate basketball teams.

With the sport being indoors, I'm under the impression that the best way for us to have a college basketball season is to not allow fans at all and limit attendance to family members and necessary media. If someone had been positive with the virus at Cameron back in March, it probably would've spread like wild fire amongst students, media and maybe even the players participating in the game.

There's nothing like watching college basketball; it's my favorite sport to cover and watch on my free time. The way we complete this season means that most of us watch it from the comfort of our homes on television. That may also mean stations like WRAL only sending one camera operator, which means I may not get to see a lot of college basketball in person this season.

To complete a season, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I hope that athletic departments outside of the high-majors are able to weather the storm if it means they'll lose out on ticket and concession revenue.