CAA to play six-game spring schedule
The Colonial Athletic Association’s spring football season will consist of six league games with an option to play two nonconference games against league opponents, the league announced Wednesday.
The 12-team conference will use a North/South divisional format, with all league games being played within the division. The team with the best overall record will receive the league’s automatic bid to the FCS playoffs. If the division champions finish with the same record, a tie-breaking procedure will be used to determine the league’s automatic qualifier.
The two nonconference crossover games would not count toward the league standings and would not factor into any tie-breaking format.
Conference play is expected to begin on March
6 and finish on April 17, with each team receiving a bye during that seven-week timeframe, according to the announcement. The breakdown of the divisions and the league schedule will be announced at a later date.
“It puts something on paper or at least on the calendar as to what you’re preparing for,” Villanova coach Mark Ferrante said. “There’s still questions moving forward, but at least on paper now we see how many in-league games we will potentially have and when those games will actually start.”
When training camp can start depends on the date of the first game, Ferrante said. Under NCAA rules, teams can have 25 practices over a
29-day period counting back from the first game. Teams may also have a two-week return-to-campus workout period before training camp begins. If the Wildcats were to open the season on Feb. 27, they could start camp on Jan.
28 and begin return-to-campus workouts on Jan. 14. According to the NCAA, nonconference play can begin as early as Jan. 23.
The CAA suspended conference competition in football on July 17 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and expressed a strong commitment to play in the spring.
The NCAA Board of Directors recently approved a revised format for the FCS playoffs, which will feature
16 teams instead of 24, with
11 automatic qualifiers and five at-large berths. The playoffs will begin on Saturday, April 24, with a champion crowned in Frisco, Texas, in mid-May.
“All of our institutions know that today’s announcement is simply the first step in the planning process associated with playing football on each of our campuses in the Spring,” CAA Commissioner Joe D’Antonio said in a statement. “Each member institution, as well as the Conference office, has additional protocols that must be finalized and approved in order to ensure a safe return to the field. Our goal in creating this unique scheduling format was to implement a competitive model while also trying to reduce the risks associated with travel as much as we could.
“It’s been an extremely difficult and challenging time, but it’s nice to be able to give our coaches, student-athletes and fans something to look forward to. Health and safety remain at the forefront of every decision we are making, and we are hopeful about getting the Spring 2021 season underway.”