NCAA to Allow 25% Capacity for March Madness

The NCAA announced Friday morning the annual March Madness Tournament, taking place in Indiana this season, will be allowing 25% capacity at the games, per Jon Rothstein on Twitter.

The 25% capacity will apply to each round of the tournament and will be made up of all participants, including essential staff, family members of each team competing, coaches, players and a reduced amount of fans. Specifics for attendance numbers will be available for individual venues after March 1.

"We continue to use the knowledge we have gained over the season on how to conduct games in a safe environment,” said NCAA President, Mark Emmert in a release. “I want to thank our host universities and conferences, the Indiana State Health Department, and the leaders in the Marion, Monroe and Tippecanoe county health departments as they help make that possible.”

The 2021 NCAA basketball tournament tips off on Thursday, March 18, and 55 of the 67 games that will be played will take place in Indianapolis. The First Four will be held at Mackey Arena and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, and the remaining rounds will be held in Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indiana Farmers Coliseum and Lucas Oil Stadium. 

With 23 days to go until Selection Sunday, the tournament field is far from set. Teams like Gonzaga and Baylor seem to have locked up their one seeds, but the remaining 2-8 seeds have a lot of sorting out to do. 

Alabama, according to the latest Bracketology from Joe Lunardi, is currently sitting at the two seed in their region and sixth overall. The Tide have four games remaining after the postponement of Texas A&M that has yet to be rescheduled, and need to win two of them to secure the regular season SEC title.

March Madness is just a month away, and the Crimson Tide look poised for the first time in years to make some noise. Will Alabama be able to turn its dominance of the SEC into a deep tournament run?