The Big East and Big South made the call Wednesday, officially joining the list of conferences postponing fall sports through 2020.
Both the Big East and Big South expressed the desire to hold competition in traditional fall sports in the spring of 2021 — providing the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding circumstances allow.
“This very difficult decision came after an exhaustive review by our presidents and athletics directors and followed consideration of NCAA guidance, COVID-19 case counts and trend lines nationally and in Big East communities, and the many unknowns surrounding testing availability, turnaround time and travel restrictions in our 11 locales,” Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said in the conference’s statement. “We take pride in the high-level competition and experiences we provide to our fall sports student-athletes, and we share their deep disappointment that this will not be a normal year.”
The Big East’s decision impacted men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball and field hockey, while the Big South’s fall sports are men’s and women’s cross country, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball.
“We are all broken-hearted that we will not be able to provide competitive opportunities for Big South student-athletes this fall,” Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander said in the conference’s release, which noted that the Big South football members voted to allow institutions to play up to four nonconference games this fall. “However, the path forward must protect the health and safety of our student-athletes, and some of the current trends and unknowns with COVID-19 have made that a huge challenge. Our intention is to shift these fall seasons to the spring as we would like nothing more than to crown Big South champions in all 19 of our sports this year.”
The Big Ten and Pac-12 made similar decisions Tuesday, while the Big 12, SEC and ACC have expressed desire to move forward with fall sports during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Big East release said that winter and spring decisions will be made later. The Big East and Big South will both allow member institutions to continue with athletic activities — such as practices and team meetings — as long as they follow local health guidelines.
The Big East includes Butler, Connecticut, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova and Xavier. The Big South members are Campbell, Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, Hampton, High Point, Longwood, Presbyterian, Radford, UNC Asheville, USC Upstate, Winthrop, Kennesaw State, Monmouth and North Alabama.
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