On “The Bobby Curran Show” this morning, Josh Pacheco interviewed Big West Conference Commissioner Dennis Farrell. The discussion centered around yesterday’s announcement that the conference’s basketball tournaments for men and women would be restricted to only players, coaches, staff and other essential personnel. The decision to go “spectator-free” was due to mounting concerns over COVID-19, or the coronavirus. Today, the World Health Organization officially designated the outbreak as a pandemic.

Said Commissioner Farrell:

“I’ve been in this position for 40 years, and I would have to say this is probably one of the two toughest issues I’ve ever had to deal with, the other being the aftermath of 9-11. We began the conversation in earnest on Sunday afternoon with members  of our administrative subcommittee of our board of directors. We laid out four different options that we could follow, one of which was to maintain the status quo. Another was to encourage social distancing at the tournament sessions – in other words, limiting the number of tickets that could be sold. The third option was doing what we ultimately elected to do, which was to go fan-less. And the fourth option was to just cancel the event outright. As we got to talking, the first option – status quo – was just not logical.”

Here is the interview in its entirety:

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