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CBS and Turner pay the NCAA around $800 million per year for the men’s NCAA Tournament, which means the financial implications of the cancellation of March Madness due to coronavirus are vast.

The entirety of the fallout of not having these special three weeks of basketball has not been settled yet as the networks and the NCAA will have to go through all the fine print of what was a complicated contract extension signed in 2016.

The current deal runs through 2032 and eventually rises to more than $1 billion per year. The NCAA could possibly extend the contract by one more tournament as a make-good, but that is just an idea, far from a known solution. There are financial considerations that may be part of the deal that could offer relief, as well.

While there are a lot of unknowns and it is not what either network wanted, they both were understanding regarding why the NCAA made its final decision.

“We are fully supportive of the NCAA’s decision to cancel this year’s NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship,” Turner and CBS said in a joint statement. “We’ll continue to work closely with the NCAA and all our partners as we prioritize the health and well-being of everyone involved.”

Good work: ESPN did fine a job on Wednesday night when news of coronavirus postponing the NBA season broke.

On the game broadcast, Ryan Ruocco, Doris Burke and reporter Tom Rinaldi struck the right tone, while on the “SportsCenter” desk, Scott Van Pelt handled the news well with assists from insider Adrian Wojnarowski and reporter Royce Young.

Without the conference tournament games it planned on airing, ESPN will add “SportsCenter” in their place on Friday.