Schools calling it off for the fall

Posted: Jul 31, 2020
Hendrix athletics photo
 

By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com

The first schools made their announcements in June, and the decisions continued into July, as dozens of NCAA Division III schools turned into hundreds which have announced that they will not be fielding their sports teams this fall. In fact, some conferences which announced that they would focus on in-conference play only have later revised their statements to say that they will call off fall play.

The spread of the coronavirus has already cost college athletics the spring 2020 season and the end of the 2020 winter championships. And now, it seems, it will rob the fall of its championships as well. The NCAA was in line to make an announcement on July 24 canceling fall championships for 2020, but delayed action until the Division III Presidents Council formally canceled fall championships on Aug. 5.

In addition, most schools and conferences making new announcements are stating that practice and play for the winter season will not start until Jan. 1. Basketball teams traditionally start practice in mid-October.

There were a number of tactics schools were taking in response to COVID-19. Some, such as Bowdoin, are not participating in any sports during the fall semester, whether they are fall or winter sports. Bowdoin and many others noted below will not start their basketball or other winter sports seasons before Jan. 1 at the earliest.

Others, such as TCNJ, are not fielding team sports in the fall, but have not ruled out fielding individual sports. TCNJ announced June 26 that it would not field teams in what it termed "high contact" sports with contests in the fall semester: football, soccer, field hockey, basketball, wrestling. 

"I know how unfortunate and deeply disappointing this is for the many performers and athletes, coaches and supporters who were looking forward to a fall season," said TCNJ president Kathryn Foster. "I look forward to it, too. Yet the science on COVID-19 finds that activities with high in-person contact or proximity have the greatest likelihood of broad and rapid virus spread, a circumstance that at TCNJ could mean shutdown of the campus. We seek to get back to these pursuits as soon as it is safe to do so. If all goes well in fall, we may be able to allow some performance and winter sports preparation."

"Unfortunately, we will not be participating in fall and winter varsity sports during the fall semester," said Bowdoin president Clayton Rose. "This is one of the very disappointing outcomes of our plan. Athletics is a central part of the Bowdoin experience for many of our students and for the college more generally."

Some conferences have called off sports entirely, such as the Centennial Conference. The Centennial said it will not play football during the fall, but will revisit its other fall sports at the end of September. The New England Small College Athletic Conference called off fall conference play, although it left the door open for schools to compete outside of the conference framework.

Other conferences, as detailed below, have announced alternate plans for the fall, invariably focusing on conference play and shortening the length of the season.

Changes in the minimum number of games needed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for 2020-21, enacted in response to the coronavirus, mean that it would be possible to qualify in a winter sport even if a team doesn't take the floor until Jan. 1, 2021. A basketball program, which typically can compete in 25 regular-season games plus a conference tournament, traditionally would need a minimum of 18 to be eligible. However, for the upcoming season, the minimum is just 12 games.

Conferences

The American Rivers Conference announced on July 28 that it was bucking the trend, and would host conference competition in football and other fall sports, with non-conference competition permitted at the discretion of its member schools. But the ARC is the only conference to have made a positive statement of the sort in weeks. 

The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, one of the last conferences to announce a fall-off, came out with a split decision, where the conference postponed conference competition and conference tournaments for cross country, football, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball, but said Adrian, Calvin and Trine would continue to explore options for competing in all sports, and Olivet would do so in cross country, golf and tennis.

"We've reached out to other institutions who are also looking to engage in competition this fall," Adrian athletic director Michael Duffy said. "More information will come on these modified schedules as it is available."

That number is limited, as most of the remaining conferences and schools in NCAA Division III have announced they will not be competing in those sports this fall.

The New England Small College Athletic Conference announced on July 10 that it was following the lead of several of its institutions and calling off fall conference play: "In keeping with public health guidance, each of our institutions has put in place physical distancing protocols, limits on travel on and off campus, and limits on the size of on-campus gatherings. Consistent with these policies, the NESCAC Presidents have decided unanimously, though with great reluctance, that NESCAC conference competition for fall sports must be canceled for fall 2020. "

The Centennial Conference announced on July 7 that it was suspending fall sports, with the possibility of moving football to the spring. Other fall sports will be re-evaluated at the end of September. The New England Collegiate Conference also called off fall semester sports, including the start to the basketball seasons. It said cross country, field hockey, soccer, and women’s volleyball would be adjusted "so that these sports are able to have a full regular season and championship element during the spring semester." The Northwest Conference postponed soccer, football and women's rowing and women's volleyball, with stated hopes to "develop a schedule for competition for these sports in the spring." Cross country, golf and tennis would be permitted fall competition in conjunction with governmental guidelines. The St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference updated its previous statement to say that soccer and women's volleyball would be moved to the spring, with cross country, golf and tennis remaining as fall sports. The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postponed cross country, football, soccer and women's volleyball to the spring, while maintaining conference play in golf and tennis.

The Empire 8 has also canceled all fall sports competition. "The Empire 8 is committed to providing all fall student-athletes with a meaningful conference regular season and championship tournament experience in the spring of 2021 provided it is safe to do so." The MASCAC called off fall sports as well. The North Eastern Athletic Conference called off fall sports. The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference called off all of its sports for the fall, as did the Southern Athletic Association, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference and the State University of New York Athletic Conference. The Colonial States Athletic Conference suspended all intercollegiate competition for the fall as well, as did the Atlantic East Conference. The American Southwest Conference called off fall sports late on Friday night, July 24. The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin did the same on July 27 and the New Jersey Athletic Conference followed a day later.

"We intend to join other Division III conferences in requesting that the NCAA postpone fall championships until the spring semester of 2021," read the SAA's news release. That release did not name any other conferences.

The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference announced on July 27 that it was canceling the entire fall schedule. "Conference seasons and championships in the sports of football, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country are to be canceled for the 2020-21 academic year. Institutions will retain the autonomy to establish practice opportunities within the limitations stipulated by the NCAA throughout the 2020-21 academic year."

The Old Dominion Athletic Conference, which originally had announced a late start to fall sports, was the first conference to come back and announce it was calling off fall play. The North Coast Athletic Conference had to revise its previous announcement as well, as did the Liberty League. The Middle Atlantic Conference also revised its previous announced and suspended play for the remainder of 2020. The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference called off men's and women's soccer, men's water polo, football, women's volleyball, and men's and women's basketball. If California reaches Stage 3 in its state guidance, the SCIAC will consider opportunities for conference competition in men's and women's cross country, tennis, golf, and swimming and diving, though it is unlikely that standard will be reached in the fall. The Ohio Athletic Conference updated its announcement to call off its fall sports as well, as did the Presidents Athletic Conference, other than tennis and golf, which may still compete in the fall if local guidance permits. The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference moved football, soccer and women's volleyball to the spring, updating its previous statement. The Midwest Conference updated its previous update to its previous COVID-19 statement to say that it is suspending competition through the end of 2020. The Landmark Conference also updated its statement.

The Capital Athletic Conference and City University of New York Athletic Conference each called off sports for the fall as well, with the CAC, spread now from coast to coast across the country, leaving schools the option to play in their local areas. 

Other conferences announced their plans for scaled-back return to competition the fall. The ones that are still in effect as of this update follow:

The University Athletic Association has called off conference play for its fall sports, because of the geographic distance between institutions. Conference members are free to play other schools for fall sports, if it can find opponents. "While we will continue to try to maintain UAA playing relationships as a priority, each UAA institution needs the flexibility to find additional local sport partners with which to compete, as they are able.” On the same day, UAA member Carnegie Mellon announced it was calling off fall sports, and Case Western Reserve soon followed. The Commonwealth Coast Conference suspended conference play, similar to the UAA, noting that "the decision to suspend CCC play in the Fall 2020 semester does not preclude individual CCC institutions from making institutional decisions to schedule some athletic competition." The North Atlantic Conference also called off conference play but left its members free to make their own decisions about shutting down sports altogether. The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference did the same, postponing conference play but leaving its members available to schedule fall competitions if possible. The Little East Conference also followed this format, as did the USA South Athletic Conference, which updated its previous statement. The Skyline Conference has also chosen this route. In the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, men's and women's golf will compete in the fall. Cross country conference competition will be considered "provided accommodations and modifications can be made by UMAC institutions." Engagement in non-conference competition in the fall for football, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball remains at the discretion of UMAC institutions. The conference is looking to the spring for potential competition for those sports.

The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference announced at least, on Aug. 3, that it was postponing conference competition in basketball, cross country, soccer and women's basketball to the spring semester, no sooner than Jan. 1. The conference also made other adjustments to conference competition detailed in the release linked in this paragraph.

Among single-sport conferences, the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference announced that it would not participate in formal conference play for football in 2020, but that individual schools were free to still play, and free to play each other. At the point of the announcement, two ECFC schools had already announced their plans to sit out the 2020 fall season. The United Collegiate Hockey Conference postponed competition until Jan. 1.

The NCAA has continued to leave these decisions up to schools so far. "The Division III Membership Committee strongly encourages institutions to make the best decisions for their campus community and the happiness, health and safety of their student-athletes," it said in a statement on July 1. "If an institution does not satisfy one or more membership requirements as a result, it may seek relief through existing waivers. The Division III Membership Committee is committed to providing appropriate flexibility to assist member institutions through this process."

In addition, the NCAA published its recommendations on testing protocols for "high contact risk sports" in an announcement on July 16.

The full list, updated Aug. 5, 2020:

Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference

  • Alfred State (including no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Hilbert (including no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • La Roche (including no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Medaille
  • Mount Aloysius
  • Penn State-Altoona
  • Penn State-Behrend
  • Pitt-Bradford
  • Pitt-Greensburg

American Southwest Conference

Atlantic East Conference

Capital Athletic Conference

Centennial Conference

College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

CUNYAC

  • Baruch (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Brooklyn (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • CCNY (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Hunter (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • John Jay (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Lehman (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Medgar Evers (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • York, N.Y. (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

Colonial States Athletic Conference

Commonwealth Coast Conference ("The decision ... does not preclude individual CCC institutions from ... schedul(ing) some athletic competition")

Empire 8

Great Northeast Athletic Conference

  • Anna Maria (football member of ECFC)
  • Dean (football member of ECFC)
  • Emmanuel (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Norwich (football member of NEWMAC)
  • Simmons (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

Landmark Conference

  • Catholic (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Drew (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Elizabethtown (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Goucher (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Juniata (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Moravian (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Scranton (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Susquehanna (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

Liberty League

  • Bard (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Clarkson (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Hobart (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Ithaca (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • RIT (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Rochester (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • RPI (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Skidmore (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • St. Lawrence (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Union (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • William Smith (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

Little East Conference

MASCAC

Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

  • Albion
  • Alma
  • Hope
  • Kalamazoo
  • Olivet (other than cross country, golf, tennis)
  • St. Mary's (Ind.)

Midwest Conference

  • Beloit (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Cornell (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Grinnell (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Illinois College (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Knox (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Lake Forest (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Lawrence (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Monmouth (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Ripon (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • St. Norbert (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

  • Augsburg
  • Bethel
  • Carleton (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Concordia-Moorhead
  • Gustavus Adolphus
  • Hamline
  • St. John's
  • St. Olaf
  • St. Thomas

New England Collegiate Conference : NECC announcement

NESCAC

  • The NESCAC announced July 10 that it was calling off conference competition in all sports.
  • Amherst (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Bates
  • Bowdoin (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Hamilton
  • Middlebury ("If public health guidelines allow for any sort of limited competition at Middlebury, we will consider them at the appropriate time and only if it is safe to do so.")
  • Trinity, Conn. ("significantly fewer, if any, competitions in the fall")
  • Wesleyan ("unrealistic for us to offer competitive intercollegiate contests for our fall teams")
  • Williams

NEWMAC

  • Babson (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Clark (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Coast Guard (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Emerson 
  • MIT (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Mount Holyoke (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Smith (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Springfield (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Wellesley (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Wheaton, Mass. (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • WPI (includes no winter sports through Dec. 31)

New Jersey Athletic Conference

North Atlantic Conference

North Coast Athletic Conference

  • Allegheny (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Denison (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • DePauw (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Hiram (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Kenyon (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Oberlin (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Ohio Wesleyan (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Wabash (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Wittenberg (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Wooster (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

North Eastern Athletic Conference

Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

  • Alverno (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Aurora (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Benedictine (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Concordia-Chicago (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Concordia, Wis. (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Dominican (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Edgewood (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Illinois Tech (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Lakeland (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Marian (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • MSOE (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Rockford (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Wisconsin Lutheran (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

Northwest Conference (football, soccer, rowing, women's volleyball suspended for fall)

Ohio Athletic Conference

  • Baldwin Wallace (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Capital (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Heidelberg (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • John Carroll (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Marietta (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Mount Union (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Muskingum (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Ohio Northern (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Otterbein (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Wilmington (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

Old Dominion Athletic Conference

  • Bridgewater, Va. (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Eastern Mennonite (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Emory & Henry (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Ferrum (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Guilford (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Hampden-Sydney (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Hollins (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Lynchburg (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Randolph (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Randolph-Macon (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Roanoke (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Shenandoah (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Sweet Briar (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Virginia Wesleyan (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Washington & Lee (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

Presidents' Athletic Conference

  • Bethany (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Chatham (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Franciscan (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Geneva (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Grove City (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • St. Vincent (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Thiel (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Washington & Jefferson (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Waynesburg (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Westminster, Pa. (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

SCIAC

  • Cal Lutheran (as noted above)
  • Caltech (as noted above)
  • Chapman (as noted above)
  • Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • La Verne (as noted above)
  • Occidental (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Pomona-Pitzer (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Redlands (as noted above)
  • Whittier (golf, tennis and cross country may be able to compete)

Skyline Conference

Southern Athletic Association

  • Berry (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Birmingham-Southern (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Centre (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Hendrix (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Millsaps (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Oglethorpe (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Rhodes (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Sewanee (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

SUNYAC

  • Brockport (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Buffalo State (includes no winter sports in the fall semester, football member of the Liberty League)
  • Cortland (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Fredonia (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Geneseo (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • New Paltz (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Oneonta (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Oswego (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Plattsburgh (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)
  • Potsdam (includes no winter sports in the fall semester)

University Athletic Association

Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference