In an announcement today, “The Summit League’s Presidents Council agreed to delay the start of fall sports for member institutions until Sept. 23 based upon the recommendation from the League’s Joint Council due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” The statement went on to state that the Council would continue to be “flexible in an ever-changing environment”.
As for DU athletics, the delay will result in a conference-only schedule for the sports of women’s soccer, men’s soccer and volleyball. Competitive schedules for men’s and women’s men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis will also be delayed until September 23. The delay will not impact any Summit League winter or spring sports at this time.
In more national NCAA news, the NCAA Division I Competition Oversight Committee has agreed to a waiver that allows all fall sports to play 50 percent fewer games to meet minimum requirements. This is especially important now with more and more conferences moving to a conference-only format that eliminates a number of games from every program’s schedule. The waiver would apply to DU’s sports to include men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball.
Several conferences have either pushed back the start dates for fall sports or moved fall sports to the spring as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The NCAA Board of Governors has elected to wait until August to decide if they will pull the plug on fall sports, postpone, or reschedule to the spring.
In a statement Monday, the NCAA said the change allows teams that play in the fall to avoid rescheduling nonconference games already canceled. They also approved modifications to selection requirements for NCAA fall championships. Teams will not be required to have at least a .500 record to earn an at-large selection.
While none of the Power 5 conferences have yet moved fall sports to the spring, both the Big Ten and Pac-12 are limiting competition to in-conference only. All 14 SEC athletic directors are meeting to discuss options for the fall season, while the ACC and Big 12 are expected to determine their plans by the end of this month.
The NCAA is expected to make a final decision on fall sports and championships by the first two weeks of August.
The dominos of disappointment are once again starting to fall…
For DU’s soccer and volleyball teams, the non-league schedule is probably much more fun than the league slate (playing more big time schools in non-league play plus better trips), with the possible exception of the men’s soccer league game against Omaha, which is heated and usually played for hardware…
This cancellation will hurt DU the most, since DU’s non-league schedules are built to help get DU get to the NCAA tournaments even if they don’t win the Summit championship game…Without them, DI will need to win the Summit outright to go dancing…
I’d rather they just pushed the whole Fall season to Spring, but then again, all this non-league cancellations are just appetizers for the full season cancellations which will likely follow…
Someone who has been on the DU campus tested positive.
https://www.denverpost.com/2020/07/30/colorado-bar-exam-coronavirus-du/
Stapleton neighborhood name changed! DU is next on our list. Change it now DU or we will change it ourselves!!!
The name “University of Denver” is offensive? LOL. That had to be a joke post!
The DU tennis courts are named after Benjamin Stapleton, Jr., not the former mayor. Unless you believe in genetic racism, there is no need to ‘rename’ DU’s tennis pavilion. A little research goes a long way.
Pioneers need to change! Stop the racism! This group is a bunch of right-wing men who love censorship and hate change!
You don’t know me or my political leanings. Your willingness to easily label others makes you either small minded at best or sexist and racist at worst. You want to celebrate the positives of one culture while labeling the very worst to another culture. That makes you a hypocrite. Seems like you would be happier somewhere else – assuming you believe what you say.
That “right-wing” stuff is total mythology…
Our readership spans the spectrum of political opinion, and most people who comment here (at least those that I know) tend to be very reasonable centrists who value everyone’s opinion. I don’t see any racist posts, censorship or hate, either.
Jesus. You people are so dense.
Sorry that was directed at PioneerDown, not the general forum at large.
Don’t feed the trolls 🙂