COLUMBUS, Ohio — By the time the Big Ten Conference faced a critical decision on its men’s basketball tournament and other sports in the middle of the past week, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith’s mind was made up. Smith serves on OSU’s President’s Council, and as such had been in on substantive meetings regarding the spreading coronavirus pandemic. He heard the mortality rates and other statistics that prompted the university to suspend in-person classroom instruction on Monday night. That seems an almost quaint juncture in retrospect, considering the mass cancellations and disruptions of the following four days. Smith, however, knew well before he arrived in Indianapolis for Big Ten meetings that began at 1 p.m. Wednesday that he favored canceling March Madness. “I was ready Monday,” Smith said. “I had seen so much. If you look at any pandemic or situation like this in our past — if you…
Continue Reading: Why Ohio State AD Gene Smith supported shutting down college sports, and what decisions come next
