On Wednesday night, American Athletic Conference officials expected the annual college basketball tournament to be played in Fort Worth. It would be altered, of course. The fans would be barred from attendance and the gym would be empty. But not one official retired for the evening believing there would be no games played at the new Dickies Arena the following afternoon.
Events over the next 12 hours, however, altered the already drastically changed landscape of the conference. AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco, who thought he had already made the most difficult decision of the week by keeping fans away from the tournament, awoke to a new reality.