The NCAA Crushes NC State’s Magical Season

By
Light It Red
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The NC State baseball team qualified for the College World Series in 2021 for just the third time in program history. The last appearance in 2013 saw a Wolfpack roster with now-professional players Trea Turner and Carlos Rodón. 1968 was the only other time the Pack9 played baseball in Omaha, Nebraska. It seemed like a season destined to end magically. But the NCAA had other ideas.

Rumors Start to Swirl

After a hot start, the Pack9 needed one more victory to a secure a spot in the CWS final. However, Wednesday night, rumors started to swirl around about NC State. We heard tell that one player “a starter” was no longer with the team, then it turned into “a starter and a pitcher were in quarantine”. Thursday, it turned into a confirmed report that two NC State players tested positive for COVID-19. Later that evening it would be released/leaked that starting second baseman JT Jarrett had “left the team” and that closing pitcher Evan Justice was placed in quarantine. At that point, Wolfpack Nation is thinking: this is bad.

Gameday

NC State showed up to the field ready to take on Vanderbilt for the second time, without JT and Evan. Then, according to Head Coach Elliott Avent in an interview with ESPN during the game’s broadcast, NCAA personnel started coming into the dugout about an hour before first pitch and removing players. NCAA issued a press release that first pitch was now delayed one hour to 2:07 p.m. Central. Between noon local time and the first pitch it was made public that NC State only had thirteen players available for their game against Vanderbilt, nine position players and four pitchers. It was also made public that the NCAA gave Elliott Avent and his team the option to forfeit. Who in their right mind would forfeit, one game away from playing for their program’s first National Championship?

NC State played. And by doing so in the manner in which they fought, became America’s team and vilified Vanderbilt Baseball. The Pack fought valiantly, falling 3-1. State even had the tying or go-ahead run at the plate each of the last two innings. It was a herculean effort. After the game, the biggest question in college baseball was how many players would NC State get back from COVID testing to play Vanderbilt, and who would they be?

Eyewitness Account

According to an active player on NC State’s baseball team, who will remain anonymous, “all the non-vaxxed guys got tested during the game (on Friday) and if they all tested negative, we were good to go. One positive test, season over. Everyone tested negative…So after the game they (NCAA) decided out of nowhere to test all the vaccinated guys…for the first time. That is NOT in their protocol. Four vaccinated players tested positive. Season over.”

Then at 2:10 a.m. local time in Omaha, Nebraska, the NCAA tweeted out a CWS Tournament Update:

At 3:10 a.m. ET, like a thief in the night, the NCAA ended NC State’s baseball season without a single pitch being thrown. Just one stroke of the metaphorical pen, across the keys of a computer while logged into the official @NCAACWS Twitter account.

I’m going to breakdown the NCAA’s statement one sentence at a time.

Sentence #1:

“The NCAA Division I Baseball Committee has declared the Vanderbilt-NC State Men’s College World Series game scheduled for Saturday, June 26 at 1 p.m. Central time a no-contest because of COVID-19 protocols.”

Breakdown:

The NCAA Division 1 Baseball Committee is an eleven-member committee made up of ten athletic directors & one conference Associate Commissioner. The committee members are from institutions all over the country. None are from the ACC, and the only SEC member is John Cohen from Mississippi State. The committee declared NC State vs Vanderbilt #2 was a no-contest.

A “no-contest” in baseball is defined as: When a team does not appear (e.g., due to weather conditions, accidents, breakdown of vehicles, illness or catastrophic causes), a forfeit is not recorded. An institution shall not, for statistical purposes, declare a forfeit for nonfulfillment of a contract. Such instances shall be considered as “no contest.”

So, the 11-man committee declared that NC State could not “appear” versus Vanderbilt because of COVID-19 protocols. The protocols communicated to all the participating teams was that vaccinated players would not be tested for COVID-19 after their initial arrival to Omaha. Well, turns out, the 13 players that faced Vanderbilt on Friday were all vaccinated. They played a game. The other 12 players that tested negative for COVID-19 were being held at a Holiday Inn Express. They were within walking distance of the baseball stadium, but watching their teammates play in the College World Series.

Between the conclusion of that game and the NCAA’s announcement that NC State “could not appear” to play for their opportunity at a National Championship, the entire team was tested for COVID-19.

Reminder: it is against their protocols to test vaccinated players. Also of note, in the statement announcing the end of NC State’s season they stated that they deemed the game a no-contest due to COVID-19 protocols.

THAT’S FALSE. Testing vaccinated players (who just played a full 9-inning game in front of 20,000 untested fans) is against the NCAA’s defined COVID-19 protocols.

Sentence #2:

“This decision was made based on the recommendation of the Championship Medical Team and the Douglas County Health Department. As a result, Vanderbilt will advance to the CWS Finals.”

William Schaffner, MD
Breakdown:

The Championship Medical Team and Douglas County Health Department recommended that NC State be removed from the College World Series.

Who is on the Championship Medical Team? Multiple medical experts and high-ranking officials in their respective areas of expertise. One member of this team stuck out to me. That man is William Schaffner. According to NCAA.org, William Schaffner is a “Professor, Preventive Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center”…Vanderbilt University Medical Center…Vanderbilt University.

Sentence #2 also stated:

“This decision was made based on the recommendation of… the Douglas County Health Department…”

But, according to USA TODAY: “Douglas County Health Department spokesman Phil Rooney said the health department did not recommend NC State’s removal. Instead, it told the NCAA the department would support whatever decision the NCAA made.”

So, a committee with a member who a reasonable and prudent person would believe has a vested interest in the result of the College World Series recommended NC State be removed from the tournament. And the NCAA lied about the local Health Department recommending the same.

Sentence #3:

“The NCAA and the Committee regret that NC State’s student-athletes and coaching staff will not be able to continue in the Championship in which they earned the right to participate. Because of privacy issues, we cannot provide further details.”

Breakdown:

They “cannot provide further details” because of privacy issues. Well, every seven minutes on ESPN from Thursday night on, JT Jarrett and Evan Justice’s names have been rolled across the bottom ticker announcing the positive results from their COVID tests. What is different about their medical information? Their test results were announced to the world every time the “CWS” portion of ESPN’s 24-hour sports news rolls around.

Summarizing an Execution

“Our eleven-person arbitrary committee decided that NC State can’t field a team with 21 COVID-negative players against the institution at which one member of our medical team is employed. Based on the joint recommendation of that medical team, we’re also going to say the local Health Department made the same recommendation. We’re also going to hope that they don’t say otherwise. (Narrator: They did say otherwise.)

As a result, Vanderbilt will advance to the CWS Finals even though they just completed a 9-inning game against a team made up of four COVID-positive players. During said game, Vanderbilt’s catcher and infielders were not able to maintain the social distancing distance recommended by the CDC of six feet. However, we’re going to just move past that and advance them here in the second hour of Saturday, June 26th, while everyone is asleep.

Because of privacy issues, we can’t go into further details even though everyone not living under a rock has seen the names of two NC State baseball players scroll across their television screen for the past 18 hours.”

Just How They Drew It Up

Vanderbilt being awarded a spot in the CWS finals is a dream come true for the NCAA. Vanderbilt’s Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter pitching in primetime is a cash-cow at their ratings. This factors in future negotiations for television deals. By not playing another game against NC State, they have guaranteed that Jack Leiter will pitch in Game One of the Finals. Buckle up for nine innings of the father and son duo to be shoved down your throat. That’s if you didn’t already mute the broadcast to escape the equally-maddening “Vandy Whistler”.

The removal of NC State from the College World Series is a cash-grab. But it’s masqueraded as a measure necessary for player safety in a COVID-ridden world. The same world where most places in America no longer require people to wear masks. The same world where the NCAA’s official CWS Twitter account jovially tweets out the official attendance number for every game. A number that has yet to be less than 20,000.

Here’s the attendance for NC State’s final CWS game against Vanderbilt:

A Dream Season Torpedoed

The same world where every single player, coach, and member of the NC State Baseball staff that tested negative for COVID-19 would be welcomed by the stadium and the NCAA to sit in the crowded seats of the CWS stadium and watch every game with no masks, no restrictions, and no questions asked. But yet, they can’t play baseball on that field, in front of that crowd, spread out across nine different spots on the field.

Whoever wins the College World Series will have done so against an undeserving Vanderbilt or as a player on the undeserving Vanderbilt baseball team. And NC State will be sitting in Raleigh, North Carolina with a College World Series record of 2-1, good enough to still not be eliminated from the field. The players, coaches, and staff will live out the rest of their lives without ever being eliminated from the 2021 College World Series.

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