As uncertainty hangs over the 2020 college football season, Division III’s Centennial Conference became the latest sports league to suspend sports this fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Centennial Conference suspends fall collegiate sports due to COVID-19
The Centennial Conference, home to 11 programs, announced that it will suspend all sports for the remainder of the year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The conference’s decision came the same day the Ivy League canceled fall sports and Carnegie Mellon suspended its sports for the remainder of 2020.
“Given health and other related concerns, the Centennial Conference Presidents Council has decided to suspend any inter-collegiate competition for sports scheduled for the fall semester” the conference said, via statement. “The presidents will reevaluate this decision by the end of September, based on work to be done by the Conference to assess sports-specific activities and the experiences on the schools’ campuses. The presidents have determined football will not be played in the fall.”
While the conference will re-evaluate the situation in September, it is official that football will not be played this year. However, officials will later discuss the possibility of moving some fall sports to the spring.
The Centennial Conference is made up of 11 teams located in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The decision will impact Bryn Mawr College, Dickinson College, Franklin & Marshall College, Gettysburg College, Haverford College, Johns Hopkins University, McDaniel College, Muhlenberg College, Swarthmore College, Ursinus College and Washington College.
Will there be college football this fall?
As more universities and conferences begin weighing the risks of playing football during the pandemic, the chances of football being played this season are becoming far less likely.
While each Power 5 conference is still scheduled to kick off the 2020 season in September, the recent shutdown of team workouts now calls that into question.
Recently, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott indicated the chances of football being played this fall are “a lot more perilous” due to the spike in cases across the United States. The Big 10 is also expected to make a decision regarding its fall sports, including college football, in a matter of weeks.
Now with the COVID-19 pandemic worsening and the virus spreading across the student-athlete population, things don’t look promising. As a result, there is now increased momentum from conference officials to push football season into the spring.