CIAA, SIAC CANCEL FALL SPORTS

By LUT WILLIAMS BCSP Editor

Photo Caption: CIAA LEADERS SPEAK: (Top l.) Bowie State Vice President of Athletics Clyde Doughty, (top r.) Virginia State President Dr. Makola Abdullah and (bottom l.) CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams during Friday’s Zoom conference explaining the CIAA’s decision to suspend Fall sports. The conference will consider a schedule for Fall sports in the Spring.

The COVID-19 pandemic has knocked out the fall schedule of athletics for two more conferences.

The two Historically Black College and University (HBCU) NCAA Div. II conferences, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC), both issued statements last Thursday announcing the suspension of all athletics activities during the 2020 Fall semester.

In doing so, the CIAA and SIAC are joining the Ivy League which announced a day earlier a similar suspension of fall sports competition. The Big Ten and Pac-12 have made a decision to only play intra-conference games in the Fall. Other conferences are reportedly considering the same among other options.

The decisions by the CIAA and SIAC includes suspension of competition and championships in football, volleyball and cross country. Both releases however also included the possibility of playing those sports in the spring semester.

The releases also included the following joint statement.

“The CIAA and SIAC both appreciates and understands the significant impact that today’s announcements with regard to the status of 2020 Fall sports. Both the CIAA and SIAC enjoy athletic related events, traditions, and rivalries that date back over one-hundred years. However, in light of the increased health and safety risks confronting much of the country, today the CIAA and SIAC affirm that the welfare of our student-athletes is sacrosanct and must preempt all other considerations when evaluating any return to competition efforts.”

The CIAA followed its release with a Zoom conference call Friday for the media.

In it, CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams, Virginia State University President Dr. Makola Abdullah, the chair of the CIAA Board of Directors and Bowie State University Vice President of Athletics Clyde Doughty, the chair of the CIAA Athletics Directors Association (ADA) gave further clarification to that conference’s decision.

Both conferences say they went through a thorough and painstaking process analyzing all data before arriving at the decision to suspend competition. The constantly changing information including spiking of COVID-19 cases in states where their institutions are located was cited by both conferences as weighing heavily in their decisions.

Jointly, the two conferences include member-institutions in ten states. The CIAA has institutions in five states – Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina – while the SIAC footprint includes institutions in South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Ohio. Half of those states are reporting spikes

“It was good for us to collaborate and make a joint announcement,” said Dr. Makola in the CIAA Zoom conference.

SIAC member Morehouse College in Atlanta had made a decision on July 9 to suspend fall competition independent of the SIAC’s decision. McWilliams and Doughty said the CIAA presidents and athletics directors were determined to stick together and make an across the-board decision.

What neither press release or the Zoom call addressed is the affect of fall sports cancellations on basketball schedules. Basketball is technically considered a winter sport but games begin in the fall month of November. The matter is reportedly under consideration by conference members.

FALL SPORTS IN THE SPRING

For now, the CIAA at least seems optimistic that Fall sports can be played in the Spring.

“We’re looking at various different models (for Spring scheduling) right now so that will continue to be discussed and determined,” Doughty said on Friday’s Zoom call.

“Budget wise, if we play in the Fall or the Spring we’re still going to be allocating the same type of funding towards the programs,” he said. “We’d be flipping things. We’re not playing football in the fall, we’re playing it in the spring. But we’re still going to play this year. That’s the goal and the opportunity.”

Doughty also said its likely if the Fall competition is switched to the Spring it would only involve intra-conference play.