Running News Daily

Ivy League cancels fall sport seasons

The Ivy League is the first of the Division I conferences to cancel fall sports

On Wednesday the Ivy League announced that it would cancel all fall sports and “will not entertain any sports being played until after January 1.” This is the first Division I league to pull out of the fall season, but probably not the last.

In a statement, Ivy League officials wrote, “With the safety and well-being of students as their highest priority, Ivy League institutions are implementing campus-wide policies including restrictions on student and staff travel, requirements for social distancing, limits on group gatherings, and regulations for visitors to campus. As athletics is expected to operate consistent with campus policies, it will not be possible for Ivy League teams to participate in intercollegiate athletics competition prior to the end of the fall semester.”

While students won’t be able to participate in competitions, practices are expected to resume provided they follow their states’ regulations.

Will cross-country and track run at the same time?

With the NCAA fall cross-country season in jeopardy, runners are speculating that both season could be completed over the winter semester. Cross-country is a sport that could be run through the winter technically (though it would be on the chilly side), however, this would make it difficult for the middle-distance runners to compete in both sports. While a 5,000m runner could train properly for a 10K outdoors and their track event indoors, a 1,500m runner would struggle to be prepared for both.

Running both sports at once could thin out the fields, but with COVID-19 mandating smaller participation numbers, a condensed season and fewer runners could actually be the solution that the NCAA is looking for.

What about Canada?

As of June 8, U Sports — the national governing body of university athletics — made a joint decision with the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) and Atlantic University Sport (AUS) conferences to call off all sports for the remainder of 2020. In the west, all sports but cross-country, golf and swimming were cancelled, with the final decision on those sports expected by July 15.

As for the RSEQ (Quebec’s collegiate sports league), they’ve announced that they plan to go ahead with an amended fall calendar as of now. Even without the possibility of a national championship, there’s hope that student-athletes in Quebec could get to compete. The league will make the final call on this decision by August 31.