Big East goes to conference-only schedule for fall

If there is a fall sports season in the Big East Conference it will be conference-only contests, the league announced in a statement on its website, via email and through its social media platforms Thursday morning.

The decision impacts men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball and field hockey, which includes Old Dominion, Quinnipiac and Temple as associate members.

It does not affect football since the Big East does not sponsor the sport as a conference, although Villanova, Butler, Georgetown and Connecticut field football programs. The Wildcats, Butler and Georgetown play at the FCS level, while UConn, which recently rejoined the conference, is the only member that plays football at the FBS (Division I) level.

Villanova is a member of the Colonial Athletic Association for football and athletic director Mark Jackson said the school is working with the CAA for that sport.

Plans for the Big East’s winter and spring seasons remain unaffected at this time, according to the release.

As to when play would start and how many games would be played, that has not been determined. Last year, the conference season in men’s and women’s soccer consisted of nine games. However, Connecticut rejoined the conference on July 1. Field hockey played a seven-game league schedule and volleyball conducted a full round-robin 18-game slate. Villanova’s men’s cross country team competed in five meets before the Big East championships while the women took part in three meets.

Jackson said the league has a target date

of late September or early October for the start of competition, but the situation in fluid.

“The Big East has done a really good job of doing a number of schedule scenarios that consider both timing and geography,” Jackson said by phone Thursday

evening. “There are multiple schedules for multiple situations like crossing state lines. If you’re paying attention to that, coming into Pennsylvania there are certain requirements. Leaving Pennsylvania there are certain requirements. None of them are locked in, but we do have a number of scenarios to consider and I’m sure if we have the ability to play football we would do the same thing in that situation, weigh all the situations, just to keep the health and safety as the priority for our kids.”

Athletes at Villanova can return to campus starting Aug. 11 along with the general student population. The return will be in stages from Aug. 11-14. Students will be assigned a specific date and time to move in.

“It’s so fluid and changes so much every day, but at least now what we’ve done is we have a report date,” Jackson said. “Our studentathletes are coming back at the same time as our students, which I think is the right thing to do. It buys us some time to make sure all of our protocols are in place ... make sure our facilities are in place, our practice protocols, all that kind of stuff so that we can start the semester safely.”

The Big East is the third Division I conference to go

If there is a fall sports season in the Big East Conference it will be conference-only contests, the league announced in a statement on its website, via email and through its social media platforms Thursday morning.

The decision impacts men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball and

SUBMITTED PHOTO Despite reduced schedules for fall sports in the Big East Conference, Villanova athletic director Mark Jackson praised the work that the conference has done to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus on conference athletics.