For the N.C.A.A., the easy part — setting a bracket and crowning Baylor, Gonzaga, Illinois and Michigan as the No. 1 seeds for the Division I men’s basketball tournament that will begin this week — ended on Sunday night. Now the association faces a weekslong test of its choice to play its signature event during the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision to pull 68 teams from across the country into a tournament in Indiana will have enormous repercussions for college sports. A successful men’s tournament, as well as a smooth women’s tournament in Texas, would lift the morale and finances of an industry that the pandemic has left in a precarious position.