Conference Carolinas postpones fall sports until spring
Conference Carolinas is postponing fall sports until the spring, the league announced Saturday.
The 11-member Division II conference had announced earlier in the week that it would “continue deliberations” before making a final decision. After reconvening Friday, the conference board of directors decided to postpone fall sports competition until the spring.
Men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball will hold their championships in the spring, the league said in an official release, adding that “conference schedules will be reduced for these sports such that institutions may elect to create a regular season schedule that allows student-athletes to not exhaust a year of eligibility.”
“The health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff is always our top priority,” commissioner Chris Colvin said in a statement. “This was a difficult decision. When we initially announced in late July that our goal was to proceed with intercollegiate competition in the fall, we fully intended to do so. Unfortunately, the situation evolved to the point where this decision had to be made to protect our student-athletes and our institutions. We are thankful for the exhaustive efforts of our board of directors and directors of athletics working with us daily to evaluate what is best for all involved. We look forward to watching our fall student-athletes compete for Conference Carolinas championships in the spring of 2021.”
A decision on when men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling will be played will be made at a later date, the league announced. In addition, the winter sports of men’s and women’s swimming and diving and men’s and women’s indoor track and field have “institutional discretion on the start of their respective playing seasons.”
The conference sponsors 25 sports but does not sponsor football, leaving a pathway open for its football-playing member schools to play games this fall if they so choose. Whether those schools will move forward with football is yet to be determined. Erskine College, located in Due West, had planned to play football for the first time in 70 years this fall.
Erskine is one of four South Carolina schools that belong to the conference, along with Converse College, North Greenville University and Southern Wesleyan University. The conference also includes North Carolina schools Barton College, Belmont Abbey College, Chowan University, Less-McRae College and the University of Mount Olive. Emmanuel College and King University, located in Georgia and Tennessee, respectively, round out the league.
“The decision by the Conference Carolinas presidents was a difficult one, but they clearly made it with due diligence in hopes of maintaining the safety and well being of our student-athletes,” Erskine athletic director Mark Peeler said in a statement. “While we will not be able to compete this fall, our plan is to resume (countable athletically related) activities for our student-athletes as soon as possible by following the protocol of our daily diagnostic screening. The pandemic has caused so much confusion and disruption in all our lives. The hope is that we will get back to a semblance of normal activity as soon as possible as we prepare all of the student-athletes for competitions this year.”
Conference Carolinas joins a growing group of conferences across the country that have canceled or postponed fall sports. At the Division I level, both the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced this week that they would postpone fall sports, as did the Big East. On Thursday, the Southern Conference joined all other Football Championship Subdivision conferences in postponing fall sports. NCAA president Mark Emmert announced Thursday that the organization was canceling every fall championship, with the exception of the Football Bowl Subdivision.
No football in the fall in SC?
Tracking the fate of college football schedules for teams in South Carolina. Any status is subject to change.
▪ Allen (canceled)
▪ Benedict (no fall, spring possible)
▪ Charleston Southern (no fall, spring possible)
▪ The Citadel (no fall; spring possible; can play up to 4 fall nonconference games)
▪ Clemson (still fall, starts Sept. 12)
▪ Coastal Carolina (still fall, on time)
▪ Erskine (to be determined)
▪ Furman (no fall; spring possible; can play up to 4 fall nonconference games)
▪ Limestone (no fall; spring possible)
▪ Newberry (no fall; spring possible)
▪ North Greenville (to be determined)
▪ Presbyterian (no fall; spring possible)
▪ South Carolina (still fall, starts Sept. 26)
▪ SC State (no fall; spring possible)
▪ Wofford (no fall; spring possible)
This story was originally published August 15, 2020 at 12:12 PM.
