Ivy League Schools Announce Cancellation All Athletics Until January

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

The prestigious universities that comprise the Ivy League might not be athletic superpowers, but when they lead, many other institutions in the United States follow. 

On Wednesday, the Ivy League Council of Presidents decided to cancel all fall semester sports and might not begin winter sports such as basketball and hockey until at least Jan. 1, 2021. Practice and athletic training on campus will continue but operate within guidelines set by each institution and local government orders.

Fall sports could be moved into the spring, but there are logistical problems to moving sports like soccer into the lacrosse season, or cross country into track and field. A decision will come later on whether fall sports, like football, might be moved to the spring of 2021.

The Ivy League Council of Presidents offered the following joint statement: 

“As a leadership group, we have a responsibility to make decisions that are in the best interest of the students who attend our institutions, as well as the faculty and staff who work at our schools. These decisions are extremely difficult, particularly when they impact meaningful student-athlete experiences that so many value and cherish.
 
With the information available to us today regarding the continued spread of the virus, we simply do not believe we can create and maintain an environment for intercollegiate athletic competition that meets our requirements for safety and acceptable levels of risk, consistent with the policies that each of our schools is adopting as part of its reopening plans this fall.  

We are entrusted to create and maintain an educational environment that is guided by health and safety considerations. There can be no greater responsibility — and that is the basis for this difficult decision.”

In March, the first school to pull out of the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Track and Field Championships was Harvard. Soon after, the Ivy League was the first to cancel spring sports and the rest of the NCAA followed suit. 

Also Wednesday, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology stepped up and filed suit against U.S. immigration authorities of a rule that would require international students to leave the country if their universities offer online instruction only. The University of Southern California and Princeton are among those who have joined the amicus brief.

Prior to Wednesday's announcement, the NCAA Division 2 schools in California's CCAA already announced that they will not be participating in sports this fall, a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

On Tuesday, the NCAA Division 3 Centennial Conference announced it would cancel all fall sports as well. 

Now that the Ivies have made their decision, many others that have held off until now will pay close attention and weigh whether 2020 still has potential for sports seasons in the fall. This could also trickle to the high school level, where 51 state activities associations are hashing out their options.