Tribe to play six league games in spring
Spring football f or William & Mary in 2021 will be the real thing.
The Colonial Athletic Association, which suspended football for the fall season because of COVID-19, announced Wednesday it will deploy a six-game conference schedule for its regular season now set for the spring. The 12 schools will be divided into North and South divisions, with all conference games played against divisional foes.
The makeup of the divisions and the schedule will be announced sometime in the next several weeks. Should the divisional alignments be strictly geographical, as indicated in the CAA’s announcement, W&M will likely be in a division that includes state and regional rivals Richmond, James Madison, Elon, Towson and Delaware.
Conference play will begin March 6 and end April 17. However, the Tribe’s season potentially can begin as early as Jan. 23, the date the NCAA is allowing Football Championship Subdivision teams to begin non-conference play.
The CAA is allowing members to schedule two “non-conference” games against other CAA schools. Those games will not count in the conference standings, nor would they be used in a tiebreaker to determine the CAA’s automatic qualifier into the 16-team FCS playoffs if the divisional champions finish with the same conference records.
“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 t ravel 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.”
W&M coach Mike London said one of the challenges of playing in the spring at an academically oriented school like W&M is that it will push the season so close to exams. Nonetheless, he said the players are looking forward to it.
“Probably the biggest thing will be to adjust, adapt, be innovative, be within the rules and find a way to get better,” he said. “This thing is new, so there’s not a game plan moving forward.
“I know a lot of the kids want to play. They want to compete.”