Fall sports canceled at Ivy League schools

The first few dominoes of college sports have fallen as two conferences of fancy private schools canceled all fall sports this week.

On Wednesday, the Ivy League became the first Divison 1 conference to suspend fall sports. On Tuesday, the Division III Centennial Conference said it was canceling the fall football season and suspending all fall sports until at least October.

This is basically what happened at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in March, when the Ivy League canceled its basketball tournament and the NESCAC canceled all spring sports. At the time, both were criticized as premature worrywarts. The rest of American sports followed them eventually.

Both leagues are open to a spring 2021 football season, if the virus allows it. The Ivy League schools — Penn, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown and Columbia — are in the Football Championship Subdivision and Division I for the rest of their sports.

The following Division III schools have also announced they will not compete in the fall: Amherst, Bowdoin,

Claremont McKenna, Grinnell, MIT, Morehouse, Mount Holyoke, Pratt Institute, RPI, Sarah Lawrence, Smith, The College of New Jersey, Texas College, UM-Dearborn, UMass-Boston, Wellesley and Williams.

“We simply do not believe we can create and maintain an environment for intercollegiate athletic competition that meets our requirements for safety and acceptable levels of risk,” the Ivy League Council of Presidents said in a statement.

The decision affects football, soccer, field hockey, volleyball and cross country, as well as the fall portion of winter sports like basketball.

The Ivy League noted in a statement that its schools already are limiting gatherings, visitors and travel for students staff.

Although the Ivy League does not grant athletic scholarships or compete for an NCAA football championship, the move could have ripple effects throughout college sports. Football players in the Power Five conferences have already begun workouts for a season that starts on Aug. 29, even as their schools weigh whether to open their campuses to students or continue classes remotely.