When Ray Tanner was in the middle of Coronavirus discussions, he knew what to expect when it came to the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament.

But, when he saw the release from the NCAA, one thing made his eyebrow raise.

In addition to canceling both tournaments, college sports’ governing body canceled all spring sport championships, including the College World Series in Omaha.

“When I saw that I paused. I said, ‘That’s down the road a piece. Was it necessary to take that action now?’ It’s the same when I found out about Oklahoma City and the women’s college world series. Then I started thinking about tennis, golf and what are their dates and did we need to move this quickly?” Tanner said. “I’m not one to say it was the wrong decision, but my first thought is we’re taking action with the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament. That was imminent. They took action. My personal thought was we could have paused and revisited the spring sports championships at another time.”

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Tanner, who went to the College World Series six times as a head coach and served as the chair of the baseball selection committee, found out about the pinnacle of college baseball’s season getting canceled the same time as the general public did.

Along with the College World Series, every spring sport championship ranging from beach volleyball to softball to golf and much more was canceled as well.

Tanner and the rest of the athletic department closed all facilities except for training rooms and the academic enrichment center while telling all student athletes on campus to try and stay home or go home while the university remains closed.

SEC schools are prohibited from having any athletic activity until at least April 15 as well.

"Our number one concern is the health and safety of our student-athletes. We send thoughts and prayers to all that have been and will be affected by the Coronavirus,” head baseball coach Mark Kingston said in a statement. “We trust our department leadership to guide us through this challenging and unprecedented time. Finally, we will encourage our team to use this life experience to emerge wiser and stronger."

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For baseball in particular, it means a potentially promising season is cut short 16 games into the season and the Gamecocks won’t get a chance to get back to the College World Series for the first time in seven years.

Since Tanner’s initial press conference, the Centers for Disease Control urged limiting gatherings of 50 people or more until at least May, meaning collegiate sports are in serious jeopardy.

If there is a next time for something like this—let’s hope not—Tanner hopes communication about what gets canceled is relayed to the conference commissioners.

“I would hope communication would be different. I know some people have been outspoken,” Tanner said. ”We were not aware the spring sports championships would be brought into play until you were aware. We found out the same time you did. That’s not the position we’d like to be in. certainly from a commissioner standpoint, there should have been involvement.”