A ‘broken-hearted’ Big South postpones fall sports seasons due to COVID-19 concerns
The Big South Conference postponed its fall sports season “with the intent of playing in the spring,” the league announced Wednesday morning.
“We are all broken-hearted that we will not be able to provide competitive opportunities for Big South student-athletes this fall,” conference commissioner Kyle Kallander said in a statement. “However, the path forward must protect the health and safety of our student-athletes, and some of the current trends and unknowns with COVID-19 have made that a huge challenge.
“Our intention is to shift these fall seasons to the spring as we would like nothing more than to crown Big South champions in all 19 of our sports this year.”
Sports affected by the decision include men’s and women’s cross country, football, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball. The release states that “fall competitions in the sports of men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis, and out of season competitions in spring sports have been suspended as well.”
Big South member schools are Campbell, Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, Hampton, High Point, Longwood, Presbyterian, Radford, UNC Asheville, USC Upstate and Winthrop. The football-only conference members are Kennesaw State, Monmouth and North Alabama.
The league’s football members can play in up to four non-conference games in the fall “due to contractual obligations,” the league announced. Presbyterian College, located in Clinton, will not play any football games this fall, the school said.
“Any degree of non-competition this fall is deeply disappointing to PC student-athletes, coaches and fans,” Presbyterian athletics director Rob Acunto said in a statement. “However, health and safety remain the highest priority, and because of that, the decision has been made to suspend fall season competition.”
The mid-major conference’s Wednesday morning announcement follows the lead of several other conferences that already pulled out of the 2020 fall sports season. Most notably, the Mid-American Conference postponed its season on Saturday before the Mountain West Conference, Big Ten and Pac 12 made their decisions public Tuesday.
Big South member school Hampton and football affiliate Monmouth had elected not to play a fall sports season in July, each citing safety concerns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Wednesday ‘a heavy day’ for Winthrop, Big South
Ken Halpin, the athletic director of Rock Hill’s Winthrop University, said in a statement to The Herald Wednesday that “it’s a heavy day for us and all of our student-athletes.”
“Our staff works tirelessly to provide them the opportunity to compete, which is something they’ve worked their entire lives to earn,” Halpin said. “We also owe them an environment where health and safety is maximized, and it became clear that providing such an environment currently isn’t possible.”
Winthrop interim president George Hynd said in a statement that the decision to postpone Big South fall athletics marks another “difficult decision” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that the delay reflects the conference’s commitment to student-athletes.
“While we know the decision is extremely disappointing for our players, coaches, staff and supporters, their health and safety is most important as we move into the fall season,” Hynd said. “We look forward to the day our outstanding teams can return to competition without the uncertainties of the pandemic holding sway.”
In a statement from the school, Charleston Southern football coach Autry Denson also weighed in on the fall sports season postponement.
“As for the Charleston Southern football ministry we have stated from the beginning that we have a desire to safely play football in the fall, if it is feasible,” Denson said. “At this time we will use the next few days to meet with leadership in athletics as well as on campus, which includes our president, athletic director, coaches and our student-athletes to ensure that we make decisions that are in the best interest of everyone.”
Big South football season
Last month, commissioner Kallander told reporters at the Big South Conference’s media day event over Zoom video call that the conference was committed to having a football season.
When asked if the viability of the Big South football season was dependent on decisions from the ACC or SEC — conferences that had some of its members schedule Big South teams, setting up some games that would inject a lot of revenue into Big South athletic programs — Kallander was clear.
“You can’t deny that it’s important from a revenue standpoint, from a competitive standpoint, from an opportunity standpoint,” he said. “... But we’ve talked about this. If the ACC and the SEC decide they’re going to play conference-only schedules, so (our games) are either postponed or canceled, we want to move forward with our schedule.”
Days later, the ACC went to a “10+1” schedule format, allowing for 10 conference football games and one nonconference game, and the SEC elected to play a conference-only schedule.
Before Wednesday’s announcement, the Big South was among four FCS conferences that hadn’t changed any details about its football season. Now, the three FCS conferences that have an unchanged football season are the Ohio Valley, Southern and Southland.
Steve Lyttle contributed reporting.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 10:05 AM with the headline "A ‘broken-hearted’ Big South postpones fall sports seasons due to COVID-19 concerns."
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