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The America East Conference, which includes the University of Maine, has announced it has suspended its fall season in all sports.
The America East, in a release, emphasized that it is not canceling fall sports, but postponing them for the duration of the first semester with a commitment to develop plans for a competitive structure in the second semester for fall teams to compete.
For football, Maine is a member of the Colonial Athletic Association. That league is expected to announce it will halt conference play, with football teams able to pursue an independent schedule.
The America East indicated it made its decision based on the health and safety of all campus members and the importance of being able to successfully re-open campus to the entire student population. The decision was made now to add clarity for the student-athletes. It further stated in the release that the league intends to start winter sports on time but cautioned,”it would be premature to make any decisions on winter sports, including basketball, at this time.”
“We have remained optimistic that we could safely conduct a fall sports season, however, there are several external factors outside of our institutions’ control that will limit and disrupt our ability to deliver our student-athletes an experience they deserve,” said America East Commissioner, Amy Huchthausen in the press release. “While several outstanding issues and questions remain, we are hopeful that creative thinking and solutions will emerge in concert with improved measures to reduce the risk associated with COVID-19 as the academic year unfolds.”
Regarding football, it is expected that CAA teams will be given the option to pursue an independent schedule. James Madison University, which has appeared in three of the last four NCAA FCS championship games, intends to do that as long as the NCAA continues to sponsor a championship tournament, according to JMU beat writer Greg Madia of the Daily News-Record. Other reports indicate league member Elon is also considering continuing with football.
The Ivy League, the Patriot League, and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conferences, all FCS level football leagues, have previously announced they were suspending all fall athletic activities.
Earlier in the week, CAA Commissioner Joe D’Antonio told the Press Herald that the league had actively discussed ways to reduce air travel and keep football teams out of hotels. One possible scenario was to split the 12-team league into three four-team geographic pods. Teams within a single pod would play each other twice, for a total of six games, with the rest of a school’s schedule to be determined. In that scenario, Maine would have been grouped with UNH, Rhode Island and the University at Albany.
Any decision to cancel the CAA football season would be made by the presidents of the member schools, D’Antonio said. That includes University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy, a former COO of the National Science Foundation.
On Thursday, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), announced it was suspending all fall sports with the possibility of switching its fall programs to the spring. The MEAC includes many Historically Black College and University schools, many in the same geographic area of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware that form the core of the CAA.
In a press release, the MEAC noted that the “rapid escalation of COVID-19 cases along the eastern seaboard,” and data that suggests “African-American and other minority communities are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19,” as key factors in the decision.
Other leagues like the Big East and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (volleyball and soccer only) have announced they will eliminate non-conference games for the fall season.
Also on Thursday, the NCAA issued a new set of guidelines for returning to intercollegiate athletics that included testing players and receiving results within 72 hours of competition for what it termed high contact risk sports. The NCAA categorizes football, basketball, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, rugby, soccer, squash, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling as high contact risk sports. For programs like Maine, that compete in the FCS level with limited revenue streams even in non-pandemic years, it would have be one more burdensome cost. The accompanying press release also set a pessimistic tone.
NCAA President Mark Emmert said in the release, “This document lays out the advice of health care professionals as to how to resume college sports if we can achieve an environment where COVID-19 rates are manageable. Today, sadly, the data point in the wrong direction. If there is to be college sports in the fall, we need to get a much better handle on the pandemic.”
This story will be updated.
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