Patriot League Cancels Fall Sports; Swimming Decision to Come Later

world-junior-championships-lane-line-underwater-T-pool-generic-bob-chen

More dominoes are beginning to fall with fall college sports being canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Patriot League will not participate in fall sports this season because of the virus, the league announced on Monday.

The Patriot League consists of the Naval Academy, Bucknell, Lehigh, the U.S. Military Academy, Boston University, Loyola University, Colgate, American University, Holy Cross and Lafayette.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 went to conference matchups only, while the Ivy League has also canceled.

The U.S. Military Academy and Naval Academy are exempt from the cancellation, and any decisions on their participation in competitive sports will be made by their superintendents.

Swimming is a winter sport and not directly affected yet, but the college swimming season begins in the late fall and goes until the spring. That could be changed and winter sports could also be affected by this decision.

In Monday’s announcement, the league said that a decision on winter sports will be made at a later date and that practice, conditioning and strength training will be permitted if “health and safety conditions support such activities.”

“From a health and well-being standpoint, things are not getting better in this country,” Patriot League commissioner Jennifer Heppel told ESPN. “As we get closer to the point where students are going to be making plans to how they travel back to our campuses as well as student-athletes, it became clear for us that this wasn’t going to be in the best interest of our communities to have athletics this fall. That’s the decision that had been made. It’s incredibly disappointing for our student athletes and our coaches, and it’s not a decision anybody is feeling good about. It’s sad. It’s gut-wrenching.”

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

Name*

Email*

4 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Diana Terry Bolding

3 years ago

Stupid

Tina Anderson Murphy

3 years ago

Wow!

Sharon Chocko Gallagher

3 years ago

Crushing dreams one conference at a time.

Ali Richman

3 years ago

Sorry to read this! Thinking of our seahawk and stang alumni who swim! Hoping they allow!