Closing the campus could be good news for the hoops season.

While the national debate continues over halting in-person teaching on college campuses and if that should affect playing football, UNC’s latest move might help the prospects for beloved basketball.

As of Wednesday, all undergraduate courses converted to on-line education. Students can stay in their dorms if they have no other access to the Internet, while graduate school classes remain open.

When the chaotic scene of those moving home or into off-campus housing settles down, there won’t be much congregating on the quads. That doesn’t absolve the irresponsible parties and hanging out on Franklin Street that caused the clusters, but it does help sports.

Varsity teams are existing in bubbles, where they learn on-line, practice, eat at training tables and remain isolated from the rest of the world, increasing their chances of staying safe from COVID-19. Among them is basketball, which has been working out since returning to campus.

We usually have the schedules for both men and women by now, but ACC schools may be adjusting those from the normal early November starts. Whenever they are allowed to play games, they could be in an empty Smith Center and Carmichael Arena, where only operational staff and TV personnel will be allowed in.

In-person classes won’t resume until mid-January. So clearly with a deserted campus, those teams have a better chance of being clean and the games played regardless of what happens in football.

A bigger question nationwide is whether college athletics should go on if campuses are closed to in-person classes. It is more philosophical than anything else; how does it look for athletes to compete while most of the student body is gone?

The highest rated ACC universities – Duke, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Virginia and Carolina – have been called out by USAToday and other media. Their bubbles resemble those formed by the NBA and NHL, pro leagues with obviously very different missions.

 

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