From The Tribune staff reports
According to multiple reports, the Ivy League will not play college football or other sports this fall, due to complications created by COVID-19. The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon.
In an article from 247Sports, Riley Gates wrote, “The league is not entertaining playing any fall sports until January 1, 2021 at the earliest…”
The decision will also affect other varsity fall sports like soccer, and could alter schedules for winter sports such as men’s and women’s basketball.
The Ivy League, as it did in March for its conference basketball tournament, is the first Division I league to act in terms of college football. That does not, however, mean Power Five schools will follow suit this time.
In an article from 247Sports, Brandon Marcello wrote, “FBS conferences followed the lead of the Ivy League in mid-March, when the league was the first to cancel its postseason basketball tournament. The real-time decision in March amid a new growing threat, however, is much different in circumstance and scope than the impending decision Wednesday concerning football in the Ivy League. Power 5 commissioners have discussed the need to wait and not follow the Ivy League in meetings this week.”
“I don’t think people understand how that (decision) simply doesn’t affect us,” an FBS administrator told Marcello.
The Ivy League, which consists of eight member schools, is considering playing fall sports in the spring. Those schools include Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Yale University.
College football is scheduled to kickoff its 2020 season on Aug. 29. Time will tell if toe meets leather that Saturday.