When I woke up on the morning of March 13, I didn’t want to believe it.

Less than 24 hours ago, everything related to sports, was gone due to the global pandemic of COVID-19. It went from no spectators to no television or internet viewers.

My life has been dedicated to sports. I never liked reading, I enjoy playing video games and watching Netflix; that’s going to have to suffice at least until April.

Or I finally cave and get ESPN+ and watch all 30-for-30 documentaries. Maybe the 10-part series ESPN was planning to release on the 1996 Chicago Bulls titled “The Last Dance” will be pushed up.

There’s no bright side to any of this. More and more people are being affected by the coronavirus everyday. Professional athletes don’t know when they’ll play again, movies are being pushed back, Broadway is shutdown; heck, even Disneyland is closed.

But the group that hits all of this the hardest: college athletes in their senior year.

Winter and Spring championships are canceled, with what appears to be no chance of being made up. March Madness, Mat Madness, the College World Series and Women’s College World Series, among others, vanished into thin air.

Conferences have announced they won’t travel or continue athletics for the remainder of the spring.

It feels like a giant boulder has hit the sports world.

It’s hard to imagine Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu won’t get a chance to cut down the nets, nor will Kansas’ Udoka Azubuike or Dayton’s Obi Toppin.

That Northern Iowa’s Taylor Lujan and Bryce Steiert, after months and years of training in the wrestling room, won’t get a shot at being an All-American or a National Champion.

All the spring sports, some not even starting yet, now have nothing to play for. Literally.

Which is why now, for all the bad the NCAA has done in years past and for all the bad PR its had, can make up for it with one simple rule.

Grant every single student-athlete affected by this unprecedented circumstance one more year of eligibility.

Run it all back. Act like this year never happened. Allow the seniors a chance to end their college athletic careers the right way.

If they decline, that’s their decision and it means they are ready for the next chapter in their life, but at the very least give them that option.

Think about another year of the best college basketball players we’ve seen before our eyes, another year of some of the best wrestlers that have hit the center of the mat, another year of the fastest runners in the world.

The list goes on and on. It would be glorious.

Also, take into consideration the lost history that might have happened.

Iowa’s Spencer Lee, the most dominant 125-pounder we have ever witnessed, was going for his third straight National Title. If healthy, he was going to have a shot at doing the improbable: four National Titles in four years.

He should get a chance at that. Whether you’re a Hawkeyes fan or not, Lee is great and deserves a fair shot at history.

These are extenuating circumstances that deserve something to make up for lost time and results.

I’m of the mindset that if you start something, you finish it. I completely understand why the NCAA did what they did. Does the selfishness come in when they could’ve just postponed and reevaluate in a couple of week like professional leagues are doing? Absolutely.

As I slept on that, something popped into my head. The hassle that would bring the NCAA and employees of the respective arenas.

This path was the easy way, cancel everything and move on. Had the NCAA postponed championships, where would they be located? Venues aren’t just booked for sporting events and they can’t move concerts or other tourist attractions for one weekend.

The idea the Final Four would be played at a smaller gym or the NCAA Wrestling Championships be at a location where they can’t fit six-to-eight mats. While selfishly I wish that could happen, logistically, it makes no sense.

Just the thought of someone in charge of that makes my head spin. It would be an utter disaster to keep up with the constant calls and meetings.

This was the right call, for now. I get people are upset about the spring sports, which I completely understand. But, we don’t know how long the coronavirus is going to last or how many more people are going to be tested positive for it.

It’s a two-sided theory. If this virus is still around by June, the decision looks good; if it’s contained by mid-to-late April, the decision looks bad.

As long as the NCAA can figure out a way to give the college athletes, but more importantly the seniors, the opportunity to gain an extra year of eligibility and finish what they started, it makes a bad situation a little bit better.

President Mark Emmert, the ball is in your court. Do the right thing.