While not a conference involved in football, the Atlantic 10 Conference Friday announced the “postponement” of fall sport due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The decision impacts, men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey, men’s and women’s cross country and volleyball.
Conference officials add the fall competitive schedules for men’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and women’s rowing will also be postponed, as will non-traditional competition seasons for baseball, softball and women’s lacrosse.
The league did go on to state that it intends to conduct a competitive schedule for the fall sports in the 2021 spring semester. Details on the rescheduling of contests and championships will be announced at a later date.
In the announcement Friday, the conference and institutional leadership have agreed to a “look-in window” mid-September, allowing for a potentially truncated competitive schedule amongst conference opponents if the COVID-19 risk has substantially been reduced. The reinstatement of conference competitions following the look-in window would require medical and institutional protocols that would assure the safety of student-athletes, staff and the campus community.
If COVID-19 risk levels do not improve, the teams and student-athletes will continue training and practicing while attending classes and prepare for a spring 2021 competitive schedule.
As for the competitive schedules for winter sports, other than swimming and diving fall contests, those will remain unchanged at this time. Officials did note that as a “basketball-centric conference”, it would be premature to make decisions on their basketball schedules at this time.
(—Courtesy Atlantic 10 Conference)
