Here's the official Big Ten announcement. Presumably this means that if there is somehow a season this fall, the BT will play a double round robin.
"Big Ten Conference announced today that if the Conference is able to participate in fall sports (men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball) based on medical advice, it will move to Conference-only schedules in those sports. Details for these sports will be released at a later date, while decisions on sports not listed above will continue to be evaluated. By limiting competition to other Big Ten institutions, the Conference will have the greatest flexibility to adjust its own operations throughout the season and make quick decisions in real-time based on the most current evolving medical advice and the fluid nature of the pandemic.'
"Big Ten presidents and athletic directors preferred the conference-only model, which will eliminate some long-distance travel..." Uh, 750 miles to Rugers...
How does this math work when it's 380 miles from Bloomington to Madison? Presumably some other non-revenue sport will have to justify going from Lincoln to College Park for a "conference game" while it can't play Creighton or Georgetown because it's "non-conference." Not sure this one was thought all the way through.
I think part of it is limiting to conference partners means all the teams you're coming in contact with will be operating under the same guidelines as far as testing, isolation, etc. If B1G schools agree to "here's how you have to do it if you want to play this fall," there's some security in that. That's an assumption I'm making, but you know what they say about assuming...
I think they're trying to keep it as simple as possible. Not sure they're succeeding, but we are dealing with an unprecedented problem.
The fall sports list will just continue to grow: Michigan-Dearborn (NAIA) Wake Tech (NJCAA) Amherst (DIII) TCNJ (DIII) Grinnell (DIII) Williams (DIII) Bowdoin (DIII) California Collegiate Athletic Association (DII) Minnesota College Athletic Conference (NJCAA) Centennial Conference (DIII) Ivy League (DI) Case Western Reserve (DIII) UMass Boston (DIII) Morehouse College (DII - no soccer) Langston (NAIA) Texas College (NAIA) Wiley College (NAIA) Numerous conference schedule/alignment changes I don't think it's final, but the Maricopa County Community Colleges District (NJCAA) have made a recommendation to cancel all sports for the 2020-21 school year. I think I'll stop this though...the list will just grow so large.
The only thing I can think of is they are limiting the contact to just in conference, not necessarily true distances. That way exposure is just "limited" to their own conferences instead of tons of different schools/athletes "infecting" others. Similarly, the smaller (read: non-Power 5) conferences have "divisioned" their conferences to keep the closer schools together to limit travel, but also limit their contact elsewhere.
Looks like the JuCos are pushing fall sports back to the spring. In regards to the upcoming academic year, the @NJCAA Presidential Advisory Council has recommended that a majority of competition move to the spring semester of 2021. An official plan of action will be determined on Monday, July 13.Statement⬇️ pic.twitter.com/A8KVE6qej6— NJCAA (@NJCAA) July 9, 2020
Yes the California Community College Athletic Association announced Fall to Spring yesterday. https://www.cccaasports.org/coronavirus/Contingency_Plan_announcement
I do think there will be a point that the coaches will start pushing for the full move to the spring. Why rush and force a season? Especially if the season is 10-12 (or so) games only with a national championship that will always be considered an asterisk. What's that mean for the fall semester and its impact on schools? Oh boy, that could be a major thing.
Football is king. ADs care nothing about soccer other than getting it in so they don't have to pay scholarships for the year in the future. The coaches will have no input into what is done for their season or they would have already moved to the spring.
There goes the Patriot league: https://patriotleague.org/news/2020...-decisions-surrounding-fall-sport-season.aspx
Official...JuCos are pushing fall sports back to the spring. https://www.njcaa.org/general/2019-...QXbgA-NZ9I_OgM_h_xg5hLSVCb-WPeYwyRPf4w4WBO4CI
I'll throw it out there now, not like it's much of a surprise...but, there will be no college soccer this fall. There is a chance they'll cancel the whole year for the sport and come back in August 2021. They'll use the reasoning as it is what happened with Spring 2020. But, football will move to the spring for this school year. There's a lot of chatter among coaches who really feel the season is already canceled, but ADs aren't coming forward with the news. I know programs who don't even know their budgets yet. Coaches are told not to schedule any games to make-up for lost matches.