It takes a drastic event to outright cancel college sports events. The Tennessee Vols football program reached its peak through the worst parts of the Great Depression and even played a game the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Outbreaks in general have never been part of cancelling a UT event. So when the news broke Thursday that the coronavirus would cancel the SEC Tournament and all NCAA winter and spring postseason events, it was a big deal.
Even if the Tennessee Vols men’s basketball program was not going to make the NCAA Tournament this year, they weren’t eliminated from it.