Benedict College won’t be playing football in the fall
Benedict College won’t be playing football this year, at least in the fall.
The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which Benedict is a member of, announced Thursday the cancellation of its fall sports because of the coronavirus pandemic. The SIAC is a Division II conference made up of historically-black colleges mainly in the Southeast.
Benedict has been a member of the conference since 1932.
The conference said it will consider moving some fall sports, including football, into the spring semester.
“The action taken by our conference to suspend fall sports was informed by a core desire on the part of our SIAC member institutions to make every effort to protect and mitigate COVID-19 related health and safety risk exposure to our students, coaches, and staff during this uncertain and unpredictable environment. It is our intention to seek eligibility relief for those student-athletes impacted by this interruption similar to that relief which was accorded to 2020 Spring sport student-athletes whose seasons were interrupted during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak,” SIAC Commissioner Gregory Moore said in a statement.
The statement also said certain SIAC schools might play some sports in the fall based on prexistiing commitments but they won’t be competing for conference titles.
Earlier on Thursday, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, a Division II conference made up of historically black colleges including Claflin, also announced the suspension of fall sports. Claflin doesn’t field a football team but has volleyball and cross country in the fall.
Benedict College also fields cross country and volleyball teams in the fall. The school announced earlier this week it was canceling its homecoming activities.
The cancellation of the season means new Benedict coach Chennis Berry will have to wait a year to make his debut. Berry was hired in February and spent last season at Southern University.
Benedict was coming off a 1-9 season last year.
“You have to teach these young men that not only do we have to win on the field, we have to win in the classroom, win the day,” Berry said at his introductory press conference.“If we continuously win the day, we’ll put a good product on the field.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Benedict College won’t be playing football in the fall."
