If there's any way for the NCAA to work it out for winter-sport seniors like South Carolina men's basketball's Maik Kotsar and Micaiah Henry and women's basketball's Tyasha Harris and Kiki Herbert Harrigan to get another season with their respective teams, then South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner is all for it.

"I would be an advocate," Tanner said Friday during a special 30-minute press conference discussing the effects of COVID-19 at South Carolina. "I know there were some teams that had finished their season, there were other teams that were not finished, and there were teams that were going to postseason tournaments. I would be an advocate if we could come up with the proper solution. I know it's not easy, but I would certainly be an advocate if we could do that."

The NCAA Division I Council Committee is expected to discuss issues related to student-athletes in winter sports who were not able to compete in NCAA or conference championships, though it's not yet clear what the options might be.

Both the South Carolina men's and women's basketball teams saw their seasons cut short as the far-reaching effects of the coronavirus have hit college athletics, just as they've hit all other aspects of American life.

On Thursday, the NCAA canceled the NCAA tournament for both men's and women's basketball. The Gamecocks women's team was expected to be the No. 1 seed and would have been the favorite to take home the school's second-ever national championship in the sport, an opportunity that team will now never get.

The men's team was not able to compete in the SEC Tournament as the event was canceled before Carolina's first game which was scheduled for Thursday night. Short of a championship run in the tournament, the men were expected to miss the big dance and land in the NIT.

Still, both seasons were cut short for the seniors, particularly Kotsar, Harris and Herbert Harrigan, who were multi-year contributors who have meant so much to their respective programs.

With the College World Series already canceled for both baseball and softball, and those seasons barely underway, the NCAA has already announced that athletes in spring sports will receive a waiver for another year of eligibility, though the details are not yet clear on exactly how that will work.

"Details of eligibility relief will be finalized at a later time," the NCAA said Friday in a statement. "Additional issues with NCAA rules must be addressed, and appropriate governance bodies will work through those in the coming days and week."

While the NCAA hasn't officially canceled those particular seasons (just the championships at the end of them), the SEC has already suspended all activities until at least April 15 with the possibility of that date getting pushed back even further, meaning those seasons are in real danger of being completely canceled.

"I was glad to see the NCAA took a step already with the spring sports, but that has to be defined too," Tanner said. "It's not as easy as saying, they'll be granted another year of eligibility. There's incoming recruits and so forth, sixth-year people if you will."

Tanner says that he is "student-athlete-centric" and is all for the players getting an extra year, even if the baseball or softball seasons are somehow able to resume in a shortened time frame.

That's a conversation for another day and a conversation that Tanner would love to have because it would mean that the virus is likely under control.

"If we're in that position, then we probably have a pretty good handle on COVID-19, would be my indications," Tanner said. "Then we would have to make some decisions athletically. I hope that's where we land, where we have to decide if we're going to cost a young person their eligibility or not or if it's going to be considered just competition and you get your eligibility back. I hope we get to that point that those decisions have to be made."