The NCAA has put forth tournament guidelines regarding COVID issues:
- Before the tournament, the NCAA will announce and bubble the first 4 teams out, and if any at-large team is forced out due to COVID protocol, those teams will be inserted into the tournament in that spot, and no re-seeding would happen (so, if Gonzaga locked down the #1 overall seed and then went down with COVID, the first time out of the bracket, like, for example, Duke, would get slotted into the #1 overall seed in their place).
- Any automatic qualifier that is forced out due to COVID protocol can be replaced by another team in that conference, assigned by that conference.
- Once the tournament has started, any team that is forced out due to COVID protocol automatically forfeits their subsequent game, and the opponent advances by default.