Ivy League Cancels Winter Season

With COVID-19 cases rising across the country, the Ivy League has canceled its winter athletic season. 

The statement by the Ivy League Council of Presidents, released yesterday, also noted that fall sports will not be conducted during the upcoming spring semester—a possibility floated in July when the Ivy League canceled fall competition [4]. The spring season will also be postponed “through at least the end of February 2021.” 

“The unanimous decisions…follow extended consideration of options and strategies to mitigate the transmission of the COVID-19 virus, an analysis of current increasing rates of COVID-19—locally, regionally and nationally—and the resulting need to continue the campus policies related to travel, group size and visitors to campus that safeguard the campus and community,” the statement said.

The decisions do not preclude on-campus training with enrolled student-athletes, continuing the “phased approach” that Ivy League schools have implemented during the fall 2020 term. 

Despite canceled seasons, “[w]inter and fall sport student-athletes will not lose a season of Ivy League or NCAA eligibility, whether or not they enroll,” the statement said. “Students who wish to pursue competition during a fifth year of undergraduate education at their home institution, if permitted, or as a graduate student elsewhere will need to work with their institutions in accordance with campus policy to determine their options beyond their current anticipated graduation date.”

“Student-athletes, their families and coaches are again being asked make enormous sacrifices for the good of public health,” the statement concludes. “We look forward to the day when intercollegiate athletics—which are such an important part of the fabric of our campus communities—will safely return in a manner and format we all know and appreciate.”