The ASUN announced late Friday that it was delaying the start of fall sports until Sept. 18, doing what a majority of other conferences have done in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The conference waited until after Friday afternoon’s NCAA Board of Governors meeting to issue its release. The Board voted to wait until its next meeting on Aug. 4 to address its fall sports championships, although NCAA President Mark Emmert indicated in a statement that “it is clear that the format of our championships will have to change if they are to be conducted in a safe and fair manner.”

“We’re going to delay the five sports that we have in the fall,” ASUN Commissioner Ted Gumbart said by phone. “We’re not going to have any play until Sept. 18. We are going to look at it again no later than Aug. 6. We’re going to visit that again. We may push it. We may cancel. We may do nothing.”

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FGCU, one of nine conference schools, had not released any of its fall sports schedules, which are men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, and women’s volleyball.

“This is one of the scenarios we’ve been discussing amongst ASUN-school administrative leadership in conjunction with Commissioner Gumbart over the last few weeks,” FGCU athletic director Ken Kavanagh said in emailed comments from sports information. “Pushing back allows us the flexibility to continue monitoring the current landscape while maintaining our preparation to safely bring our back our student-athletes for the fall semester.

“With several conferences and schools already deciding to postpone or cancel their fall competition schedule, that has already impacted a significant portion of many of our teams’ nonconference schedules to begin with. Hence, pushing back to Sept. 18 is pretty much the window where ASUN Conference play would typically start. In turn, we will also continue to investigate how we can sprinkle a few nonconference events into the shortened fall cycle to make up for some of the events lost. Overall, amidst continuing to make decisions in the best interests of our student-athletes and staff, we will continue to monitor information shared from the medical community as we forward.”

Women’s soccer figures to be the sport affected most since its regular season typically begins in the middle of August. Men’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country and women’s volleyball are other fall sports, but they generally start in very late August.

Last year women’s soccer started on Aug. 22 after a pair of exhibitions. Men’s soccer started on Aug. 30 also after playing two exhibition matches previously, and men’s and women’s cross country and women’s volleyball also started on that date.

“I think pushing back to Sept. 18 definitely truncates our season, but also gives us some additional developmental time, while also working through our testing and COVID protocols related to bringing student-athletes back and getting them acclimated for competition,” FGCU men’s soccer coach Jesse Cormier said in emailed comments from sports information. “We’re disappointed to lose several of our top nonconference games, but for many of us, these games were already off the board as other conferences suspended play this fall. The delayed start does prioritize the health of everyone, and at the same time gives us a target to prepare for, so we are just grateful to get the guys back, reconnect to our passion and start building our identity as a team and program.”  

“We’re continuing to be optimistic about getting started though certainly what we were looking at four-to-five months ago has shifted based on decisions by other conferences,” FGCU women’s volleyball coach Matt Botsford said. “I think everyone has done a great job on figuring out how to get us back up and running, but certainly getting re-started, as we’ve seen in other areas of life, has a lot of moving parts. We continue to stress positivity with our student-athletes and are keeping them focused on returning to school ready to go with their classes and training.”

Earlier Friday, The Associated Press reported that the Collegiate Commissioners Association, which includes all 32 conferences, had sent a letter to the NCAA Board of Governors on July 22 urging it to delay making a decision on fall sports championships. The letter was supported by 27 conferences, with five abstaining, according to the AP.

Men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis also have fall portions of their season, but their main seasons and championships are in the spring.

While many conferences have chosen to delay fall sports until September, others such as the Ivy League have canceled fall sports altogether.  The Ivy League’s decision, which also included canceling any contests scheduled through the end of the fall semester, cost the FGCU men’s and women’s basketball teams one home game apiece with conference schools.

Greg Hardwig is a sports reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @NDN_Ghardwig, email him at ghardwig@naplesnews.com. Support local journalism with this special subscription offer at https://cm.naplesnews.com/specialoffer/