At least one Division I conference won't be playing college football, or any intercollegiate sports, this fall.
The Ivy League announced Wednesday that due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it will not play any sports until at least January.
No decision has been made yet on whether football and other fall sports will be rescheduled for the spring, but Wednesday's announcement means that Ivy League winter sports teams – including basketball – will also be unable to start their seasons on time.
Consistent with campus health & safety policies across the League, The Ivy League Presidents outline phased-in approach to intercollegiate athletics activity, including no competition prior to the end of the fall semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
— The Ivy League (@IvyLeague) July 8, 2020
https://t.co/7iwQGnECsT pic.twitter.com/DYUFoFshA4
With Wednesday's announcement, the Ivy League became the first Division I conference to announce its schools will not play their football seasons as scheduled this fall.
It's uncertain whether that will prove to be a sign of things to come for the rest of college football. The Ivy League was also the first conference to cancel its conference basketball tournaments and spring sports when the pandemic first started to ramp up in the United States in March, and the NCAA as a whole followed suit just a couple days later. There's a big difference, though, between Power 5 football and FCS football, giving conferences like the Big Ten, SEC and ACC more incentive to try to make a fall sports season happen in any way possible.
"We all pay attention to it, just to see what's out there, but I think their model is a little different than our model when it comes to football," West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons, the chair of the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee, told ESPN's Heather Dinich. "Is it definitely going to impact what we do? As a whole, not necessarily. We have to look at what we're doing with testing and protocols and the safety and well-being of our student-athletes, making sure we're doing the right thing from that aspect of it, to see if we can fill any type of season."
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey recently told The Rich Eisen Show that he expects a decision on football season to be made in late July, which will allow teams to begin required workouts on July 13 and see how those progress initially before any final decisions are made.
