Covid Impacts on Upcoming Season

[jaybird44]

No fall sports at the University of Chicago...

https://athletics.uchicago.edu/general/2020-21/releases/20200716m11xzq

[Stryker]

Liberty League cancels its fall season.


https://libertyleagueathletics.com/news/2020/7/22/general-liberty-league-statement-on-fall-semester-competition.aspx

[OldNed]

St. Joseph's of Maine isn't throwing in the towel yet on some type of a fall season, despite the GNAC conference cancelling the conference schedule.  Perhaps with lower COVID rates in New England, and in Maine in particular, they might be able to cobble together some games against in-state opponents.

https://www.gomonks.com/general/2020-21/releases/20200720fgsxg8

[midwest]

NCAC cancels intercollegiate sports through 12/31. Oberlin and Kenyon had already cancelled their own sports programs for the fall, I don't know how many other conference members had also cancelled.

https://www.northcoast.org/News/2020-21/Releases/NCACFallSemester

[fishercats]

As of yesterday, "Count is 210 of 448 institutions and 20 of 45 conferences as of July 23 10:00 AM EDT." https://d3soccer.com/notables/2020/COVID-Status-of-Play. This is just over 45%.

My kid's coach stated that 40-50% cancelling pretty much represents a tipping point for NCAA calling it off.

This isn't looking good if you were hoping for any type of "regular" looking season.

Some conferences are still committed to playing, but whether that is for a conference or NCAA championship, or for a more informal-type season, is yet to be determined.

[PlaySimple]

Some conferences are still committed to playing, but whether that is for a conference or NCAA championship, or for a more informal-type season, is yet to be determined.

Even with the conferences that are committed to playing, I'm more of the attitude that it probably won't happen. And if a season does start, it will be short. To me it seems inevitable that someone will test positive at some point.

Of the conferences that have canceled, it seems that most of them are dispersed geographically (UAA), in areas with a lot of Covid cases (CUNYAC), or have large student populations that are from a lot of different areas of the country (NESCAC, NCAC). A lot of those aforementioned schools have large endowments also and can weather whatever financial setback that canceling sports might impose on them. For D3 athletics that is usually the loss of tuition due to athletes not attending a university for sport. That doesn't happen a lot at the D3 level, as students tend to be more academically motivated to attend a particular institution, but it does occur. There are plenty of D3 schools that are marginal from an academic standpoint.

Some conferences that seem to be committed to playing are the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAA), and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). All of those conferences are composed entirely of members within their respective states with the exception of some affiliate members of the WIAC that are from Minnesota and are members for only one sport. Additionally, the MIAA has two members from Indiana (Trine & St. Mary's College) but those schools are very close to the Indiana-Michigan border. The schools in all of the mentioned conferences primarily attract students from within their respective geographic areas and the administrators probably believe that there is low risk. With the NCAC that I mentioned earlier, while it is true that all except two of the schools are in Ohio, the schools seem to attract students that are from a lot of different areas of the country.

I have heard that the CCIW will be deciding tomorrow what they intend on doing. I'll be surprised if they have any sort of a season.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Be aware with the CUNYAC - New York is now one of the lowest COVID cases areas in the country.

The concern is actually that numbers are increasing again in general (some places far higher than others) and what the flu season will do to add to the misery.

[southsidejet]

OAC most likely cancelling their fall season this afternoon, per sources.

[Stryker]

Middle Atlantic Conference cancelled its fall season.

https://fdudevils.com/news/2020/7/24/general-mac-suspends-intercollegiate-competition-for-fall-2020.aspx

[Ejay]

Is the ODAC the first conference to announce their intention to move fall sports to the spring? I don't recall seeing that from anyone else.

"The ODAC remains focused on providing meaningful competition for all student-athletes in 2020-21, which includes an intention to sponsor conference competition for fall and winter sports in the spring semester."

https://www.odaconline.com/general/2020-21/releases/072120-odac-update

[Gregory Sager]

... and there goes the OAC's fall season:

https://www.oac.org/MISC/COVID-19_2020/Fall_Postponed

[ThankstoJack]

There have been conferences several that mentioned exploring Spring 2021 play in their suspension/cancellation announcements, but this from the SCAC was a separate statement and very explicit.

SCAC Statement Regarding Alternative Playing Seasons for 2020-21 Academic Year   https://scacsports.prestosports.com/news/covid19_update4

[PlaySimple]

... and there goes the OAC's fall season:

https://www.oac.org/MISC/COVID-19_2020/Fall_Postponed

Some schools or conferences are wording their press releases as the season being "postponed" vs others that are stating "canceled." I don't realistically feel that the fall sports can be moved to the spring but is the wording being used to still leave that as an option? To me it's just not feasible. Schools will not have the facilities or personnel to accommodate that. There's been more talk of this happening at the D1 level but even most of those schools will not have the ability or resources to pull it off.

I read through the OAC press release and to me it was vague in terms of the fall sports being played later. It never said that the season would be moved but it never stated that it wouldn't, either. All that was clear was that the winter sports of basketball, indoor track and field, swimming and diving, and wrestling will also have intercollegiate competition postponed during the 2020 calendar year, with plans to resume in January 2021. That is optimistic as well and it will not happen, IMHO, if there is not a vaccine by that time.

[CC United]

The NCAA is considering legislation that will allow fall sports to compete in the spring.  Based on this, the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC)(which includes Trinity Texas & Colorado College) created a task force of member schools to plan for intercollegiate competition in the spring for fall sports. I do not expect a regular season to be played in the spring, but I think teams cold play some kind of schedule against conference and/or no conference opponents if we get a vaccine. I am a realist and understand a spring season may not happen.  However, I think the SCAC schools and other conferences will make it happen if the Pandemic takes a significant turn for the better. The logistical concerns expressed by some about playing in the spring are legitimate, but in my opinion overstate the problem and underestimate the institutions desire to make it happen. Watching D3 teams play will lift all our spirits whenever it happens.  We're overdue for some good news. I am predicting a majority of D3 soccer programs will play games in the spring and this Board will be back to the usual banter with strong previews by Mr. Right, which I miss. With that in mind, I'll respond to any comments in May 2021.

https://scacsports.prestosports.com/news/covid19_update4

[PaulNewman]

First, kudos to whoever is putting together the lists on the site and keeping them updated.  I'm sure it's a ton of work.  Second, I'm not following all of the nuances about some schools being listed as not playing in 2020 and others not being listed (yet).  Maybe there are a couple of errors but some omissions (like OAC and MAC) are stated as intentional.  Middlebury and Trinity (CT) were cited as examples of NESCACs still open to considering some type of limited competition, but both have been listed as not playing in 2020 for a while now.  There are others like St Joseph's (ME) listed as not playing that have posted similar language about the possibility of trying to cobble together some competition (and St. Joe's specifically cites possibly schools in ME and NH).  Then there is Rochester that is not listed because of being "in the process of identifying competitive opportunities for our teams."  Given all the schools in that area already committed to not playing, I'm not sure what that could mean.   Maybe local community colleges, D2 schools?  Just with respect to Rochester, my cynicism suggests to me that UR is playing games with language, and at best they are referring to a few exhibition-style encounters.  I'll take the liberty to say that with UR since I paid them over 200K.  At any rate, reading the OAC and MAC statements, I don't see any references to even a possibility of their schools having real competition in 2020 (unless I missed something or member schools have some different language).  I do see references to hoping for the Spring, but obviously that would be 2021 and determined well down the road.   

I agree with both views expressed thus far about Spring....that 1) schools, just like the ones with language about some form of limited competition, are trying as hard as they can to soften the blow, not lose students, and leave those glimmers of hope (while virtually every school talks about the devastating news and promise robust involvement with coaches, training, leadership opportunities, and maybe, eventually working up to full practices); and 2) that schools will aggressively pursue some form of competition in the Spring.  Regarding the latter, I would think a Spring season would be more meaningful if most or all D3s limit themselves in the Fall to no more than a few exhibition-type competitions.  For example, if the MIAA follows through with a full round robin schedule, wouldn't that put them out of a potential Spring season with a possible tournament?

Addendum re: Spring.....who knows?  The focus mostly has been on whether schools can handle putting on Fall and Spring athletics at the same time.  That's presuming there will be Spring athletics.  We're all hoping for that I'm sure, maybe even expecting that.  Still a ton of questions.  Will an effective vaccine be ready?  Can it be sufficiently distributed soon enough?  Will enough people accept and take a vaccine?  How the Fall in general goes in the country may be highly impactful.  Better than expected, or worse?  And to what extent will the virus still be a problem in December, January, February, March.  So much can happen between now and then.  I mean, just in the sports world, Kobe Bryant and his daughter (and all the other passengers) died in 2020.  Watching The Last Dance seems like months and months ago.   And right in the middle of the next six to seven months is an election that -- whatever the result -- is going to rock the country as a good portion of the country will be traumatized (adding to the trauma already endured in 2020). 

At least Zion is back in the bubble .