Boston College Follows NCAA’s Lead, All On-Campus Sporting Events To Be Played Without Fans

Earlier today, the NCAA announced that all upcoming national tournament games for all sports will be played with only essential staff and close family, which could affect the men’s hockey and women’s basketball teams as March marches on. Tonight, Boston College followed suit and announced that all on-campus games will be played without a crowd as well, joining many other schools across the country in making the decision.

Boston College Men’s Hockey is set to host Providence this weekend in a Best Of 3 series for the Hockey East quarterfinals, with the winner advancing to the Hockey East semis next weekend at the TD Garden. This will also affect regular season games for other sports as well, such as lacrosse, baseball, and softball. Games will take place with “essential personnel and limited family attendance.”

For the Men’s Hockey East quarterfinals, BC notes that fans who have already bought tickets will receive an email from the ticket office about the refund process.

In related news, earlier today, Hockey East Associate Commissioner Brian Smith tweeted that any Hockey East tournament games not open to the public and not televised by NESN will be brought out from behind the paywall and allowed to be streamed for free, to make up for fans being unable to attend:

That doesn’t quite end up having an effect on Boston College, as all three games are set to be televised on NESNplus or NESN, but it’s still a nice move from the league to try and mitigate the fact that fans cannot attend.

It’s obviously been a pretty wild day, and we’ll continue to update the site with more news should anything else be released.