Coronavirus

Universities are going online at a rapid pace, and many are prohibiting travel. Scientists have been recommending proactive measures See here. Here is the standing of the top programs:

Rhodes - "College-related, non-essential domestic and international travel is not permitted."
Yale - Online til April 5 + urging cancellation of university-sponsored domestic travel
Harvard - Online for remainder of semester, must move off campus, university-related non-essential domestic air travel prohibited.
Miami - Online til April 12
UVA - Discouraging university travel
Cornell - Online for remainder of semester, discouraging domestic travel
UCLA - Online til April 10
UChicago -  Prohibiting nonessential domestic University travel til April 15, along with University sponsored gatherings of 100+ people.
Ohio State University - Online til March 30.
NYU - Online til March 27.

Obviously, this is an issue more important than mock trial. Safety comes first, as Ash DeRosa would say. But I'm sure I speak for a lot of people when I say I'm concerned about how this might affect ORCS and Nationals. I hope AMTA puts out an announcement this week.

I think AMTA likely needs to contact current NCT teams and see what their plans are for attendance. If the current list is already planning on not showing up, then there needs to be some sort of delay or cancellation.

Wow, if these kind of travel restrictions remain in place (and no reason to think they won’t) I am not sure what happens to the NCT. It can’t be delayed - pushing it back into May could conflict with finals and the virus issue will probably not be solved anyway at that point.

Can anyone confirm if Princeton ORCS was postponed?

AMTA website confirms it

IMO AMTA needs to release a statement sooner rather than later, even if just to say they're monitoring the situation.

AMTA website confirms it

Where? I don't see that. The Princeton ORCS website only mentions a new location.

Here is the email that Will Warihay sent out

WashU and University of Minnesota, who both qualified for Nats last weekend, just closed indefinitely. If somehow Nats isn't cancelled (which seems more unlikely by the hour) then I have no idea how teams are supposed to practice and travel together.

At this point, and reading Will Warihay's email, I can't imagine the NCT (or, even remaining ORCS) continuing as scheduled. Maybe I will be proven wrong, but too many universities are shuttering entirely or prohibiting travel. What a strange development, especially considering some ORCS have already occurred. I'll be very interested to see what the other "various options" Will Warihay mentioned look like.

At this point, hosting the NCT could be actually illegal. Washington and Ohio are banning public gatherings, and if Illinois follows suit, that’s the end of it. The threshold in Washington was 250 people, which would include the NCT.

While Waihay’s email mentions alternative options, I just don’t know what those could be. Mock trial can’t be done online. And as the situation deteriorates it’s probably going to be harder and harder to find judges - especially since many are older.

If the competitive season is brought to an early end this also would mean two years in a row without an NCT winner.

Pacificus wrote:At this point, hosting the NCT could be actually illegal. Washington and Ohio are banning public gatherings, and if Illinois follows suit, that’s the end of it. The threshold in Washington was 250 people, which would include the NCT.

While Waihay’s email mentions alternative options, I just don’t know what those could be. Mock trial can’t be done online. And as the situation deteriorates it’s probably going to be harder and harder to find judges - especially since many are older.

If the competitive season is brought to an early end this also would mean two years in a row without an NCT winner.

The only thing I could think of was something in the summer? But that would come with a host of logistical and team-makeup problems all on its own. Beyond that, I'm struggling to conceive of a way in which NCT could be postponed without interfering with graduation/finals.

Furman University announces that they are “suspending all on-campus meetings” & “all non-athletic events are canceled or postponed” a few hours after a very similar email to the one linked above was sent from AMTA to the Greenville and Memphis teams.

adamsel wrote:

Where did you find this?

It's from the ORCS page on AMTA's site.

http://www.collegemocktrial.org/tournaments-/opening-round-championship-/orcs-earned-bid-list/

There is nothing else noted about the Rhodes and Furman ORCS, but the President of Rhodes College has posted this:

https://www.rhodes.edu/coronavirus-updates

All in person public lectures and gatherings are cancelled for the remainder of the semester. Events that can be delivered remotely may continue.
Intercollegiate athletic competition on campus is also cancelled through the end of the season, effective today.

Combined with the Furman announcement, this means that every university that was hosting the second week of ORCS has effectively banned it, at least on-campus.

Seems a pretty safe bet that ORCS and Nationals are going to be cancelled. I bet TBC gets cancelled as well. It's the right move for public health, but you have to feel for the seniors whose time with mock has come to such an abrupt end and the teams who were having great seasons that will never get to finish them.

Damn. This really sucks. I wonder when and if they'll even release the Nats case -- maybe this just means extra practice time for competitors?

I'd imagine even if NCT is still put on (just delayed), a lot of competitors won't be able to participate due to other obligations. Curious to see what the repercussions mean for team performance, morale, and rosters.

First off, I'm happy AMTA addressed this the way they did. They are trying to thread a difficult needle - acting appropriately in a public health crisis, but also respecting the sacrifices people have made for this activity. The former is more important than the latter, but I appreciate their wording as to not crush people's spirits.

Second, I could forsee AMTA restarting tournaments in late August/September, with exceptions made for graduating seniors.

Even if they restart then, at that point a lot of seniors will have moved on -- potentially to a different part of the country, potentially with new responsibilities they can't get out of. Even if the tournaments do get rescheduled for the fall, I imagine many if not most seniors won't be able to compete.

The AMTA statement sounded abnormally adamant on finding a way to finish the season. I'm curious if that's just a vapid statement of hope to appease students or if they actually plan on trucking through.

Since high school nationals got cancelled, I really doubt that AMTA is gonna find a way to make this happen.