The Patriot League becomes second Division I conference to cancel fall sports
Another Division I conference is canceling fall sports due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Patriot League, which competes at the FCS level in football, announced Monday that it will not participate in fall competition. The decision makes the Patriot League the second D-I conference to cancel fall sports, joining the Ivy League.
“The collegiate athletics experience at all Patriot League institutions is valuable to fulfilling our educational and developmental missions, and the League recognizes that any degree of non-competition this fall is deeply disappointing to our student-athletes, coaches, and fans. However, the health and safety of our campuses and communities must be our highest priority,” the league said in a press release.
Like the Ivy League, the Patriot League said it will determine at a later date whether it is possible to push fall sports — like football — to the spring. The Patriot League said it will make decisions about winter and spring sports “at a later date.” The Ivy League said it would not allow any of its sports to be played before Jan. 1, a move that affects winter sports like basketball.
“The League is committed to exploring creative approaches and alternatives to providing future competitive experiences to our fall sport student-athletes, including the possibility of conducting fall sport competition and championships in the second semester,” the Patriot League said.
Patriot League plays FCS-level football
The Patriot League is based in the Northeast and has 10 core members: American, Army, Boston, Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, Loyola (Maryland) and Navy.
The Patriot League has seven members that play football, including two football-only members: Fordham and Georgetown. American, Boston and Loyola (Maryland) do not have football programs, while Army and Navy play at the FBS level. Unlike the Ivy League, the Patriot League participates in the FCS playoffs.
Several Patriot League non-conference football games had already been called off after the conference implemented an array of guidelines late last month. Those guidelines included barring Patriot League teams from flying to away competitions. Monday’s announcement will remove several additional non-conference games against FBS teams from the 2020 football schedule.
Those include Bucknell at Army (Sept. 4), Colgate at Syracuse (Sept. 19) and Holy Cross at Boston College (Oct. 31). Fordham’s Sept. 12 road game at Hawaii had already been called off.
Two FBS conferences — the Big Ten and Pac-12 — announced last week that they were proceeding with conference-only play for fall sports in 2020.
Exception for Army and Navy
From a non-football perspective, Army and Navy have been given a special exemption as part of Monday’s announcement. The conference said those academies “may continue to engage in competitive opportunities as considered appropriate by their respective Superintendents.”
From the conference press release:
Because the United States Military Academy and the United States Naval Academy are unique in their environments and their missions within higher education, the Council of Presidents agree that the academies may continue to engage in competitive opportunities as considered appropriate by their respective Superintendents.
Navy Sports Information Director Scott Strasemeier said on Twitter that both Army and Navy “will play sports in the fall.”
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