CAA axes league football games; Atlantic 10 moves sports to spring
Villanova football coach Mark Ferrante had a Zoom session with his football team Thursday night to talk about the planned return to campus for the fall semester, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 11. Shortly before the meeting began word leaked that the Colonial Athletic Association was contemplating suspending conference competition for football in 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ferrante thus prepared his players for that possibility. Then Friday afternoon, he informed them the rumors from the previous night were true and that the conference was about to make the official announcement on its website and social media platforms.
No football this year for the Wildcats?
“It was disappointing, but not a surprise,” Ferrante said.
However, the announcement by the CAA is being called a suspension of conference football games in the fall, not a cancellation of the season. Nor does it affect the other fall sports. The conference has not made a determination on that matter, though league member William & Mary announced it was postponing all sports for the fall semester.
As for football, the CAA is exploring the option of playing games in the spring. The decision also leaves the door open for each individual institution to explore the possibility of playing an independent schedule in the fall.
Defending league champ James Madison announced that it will pursue that option, provided the NCAA still holds the FCS playoffs. Elon also said it was looking into putting together an alternative schedule in the fall.
Villanova athletic director Mark Jackson said the school is leaving its options open, but he is not optimistic about playing football in the fall.
“I’m not optimistic we’ll have a season in anything, but we’ll keep holding on and work with our medical team to figure out what’s best,” Jackson said. “It changes every day. We’ll take today’s information and make decisions on it and re-evaluate it tomorrow.”
Ferrante feels the same way, saying, “Who knows if anybody’s playing football this fall between now and a month from now?”
Trying to find teams to play in the fall, especially at the FCS level, could be difficult. The Ivy and Patriot leagues already canceled their seasons. That cost Villanova its first two games of the season (Lehigh and Bucknell).
“We’re exploring all the options based on what the release said,” Ferrante said. “In reality, what are those options going to be?”
As for playing in the spring, Ferrante was open to that idea.
“As coaches and student athletes and competitors we’ll go play anywhere anytime,” Ferrante said. “We’ll have to wait and see. Let’s finalize the fall first with everybody and then let’s explore the feasibility of a spring season. I know everyone is on board to look at those options.”
With a number of returning starters on both sides of the football, including quarterback Daniel Smith, running back Justin Covington, wide receiver Changa Hodge and linebacker Forrest Rhyne, just to name a few, Villanova was expected to have one of the top teams in the Football Championship Subdivision. The Wildcats, who went 9-4 last season and lost in the first round of the FCS playoffs, were ranked eighth in both the Athlon and Hero Sports preseason top 25.
“My main focus is, regardless of when we end up playing, I would like to keep this team intact,” Ferrante said. “And there are a lot of conversations that have to take place to do that.”
The announcement by the CAA came one day after the Big East said it would play a conference-only schedule in all fall sports. No decision has been made as to when those seasons will start. Students at Villanova can begin reporting to campus on Aug. 11. Classes are scheduled to start Aug. 17.
“If there’s anything good that has come out of the last two days, we, as Villanova, have the opportunity to treat all of our student athletes the same way,” Jackson said. “Football and all of our fall Olympic sports are in this wait-and-see mode and leaning on the medical community. That’s exactly where we’re at.”
Shortly after the CAA made its decision public, the Atlantic 10 announced that it was moving its fall sports including its conference championships to the spring.
The sports affected are men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey, men’s and women’s cross country and volleyball. The fall schedules for men’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s swimming and diving have also been postponed, along with the non-traditional competitive seasons for baseball, softball and women’s lacrosse.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes and staff is paramount,” Saint Joseph’s athletics director Jill Bodensteiner said in a statement. “We all desperately wish we could return to the playing field this fall, but we’ve made the decision based on health-related factors, and believe that postponing play until the spring is the best course of action. Our student-athletes are strong, passionate and resilient, and they deserve the opportunity to play an uninterrupted season; we simply did not feel that was possible in the fall semester.”