ASHLAND — There will be no national champions from Ashland University in any of the NCAA Division II fall sports.
And it has nothing to do with the quality of the Eagles’ teams or athletes.
The Division II Presidents Council made the decision Wednesday to cancel the 2020 post-season “due to the operational, logistical and financial challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The decision answered some questions for Ashland University and other programs. But it also generated more, according to Eagles’ Athletic Director Al King.
“Like every school in NCAA Division II this morning, we’re evaluating the fall and what we can and can’t do. I have conference calls today with the GLIAC, our current conference and the GMAC, the conference we join in 2021-22,” King said Thursday morning.
“Those will be informative because I will be able to get a sense of what our peers are doing. I know some of the items to be discussed are what we will want to do in the upcoming weeks,” King said.
King said he understands the NCAA’s decision.
“I will say the same thing I said last March when the NCAA Championships were canceled and the spring sports were canceled, we realize that hard decisions are needed at this time. The priority is health and safety. That can be difficult to take because our student-athletes desperately want to play and people all around the country are hungry to watch the games they play,” King said.
“But right now it’s just not safe to do that. I’m very sad this morning because this is a heavy blow for our student-athletes and coaches, so many hopes and dreams have been put on hold. At AU, all of the teams that lost their fall seasons have experienced the thrill of the NCAA postseason at some point in the last several years. Losing that opportunity stings. When I speak to student-athletes at the start of each year I tell them that we’ll do all we can to help them compete for conference championships and reach the NCAA postseason,” King said.
The council made the decision after the NCAA Board of Governors directed each division to make a decision on its fall sport championships. The board also directed each division to meet various requirements to compete in the fall.
Those directives include that all member institutions apply the resocialization principles to fall sports and set a 50 percent sponsorship threshold for a fall sport championship to be conducted, among other requirements.
As of Wednesday, almost half (11 of 23) Division II conferences across the country had announced they will not compete during the traditional fall season.
AU competes in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which has decided to play a conference-only schedule this fall and that it would evaluate the feasibility of league competition on a sport-by-sport basis.
Playing a conference-only schedule affords schools additional time to get student-athletes back on campuses and through COVID-19 monitoring protocols, as well as the necessary time to conduct pre-season training in football, volleyball, soccer, cross country and women’s tennis, the GLIAC said.
AU’s football team is scheduled to open the eight-game 2020 season Sept. 19 at Ferris State. Its first home game is planned Oct. 3 against Grand Valley State.
Collegiate athletics has been on hold since mid March when the coronavirus swept across the country.
“We recognize that student-athletes are anxious to return to campus and their teams,” GLIAC Commissioner Kris Dunbar said when the conference-only schedule was announced.
“Throughout the summer, school administrators have put guidelines in place to ensure that student-athletes are properly tested, monitored daily and training safely. I admire the work they have done to put the health and safety of the student-athletes, coaches and support personnel above all. At the same time, we’re working toward returning to competition safely,” Dunbar said.
GLIAC presidents plan to reconvene in early August to re-evaluate each school’s ability to meet the recommendations put forth by the task force.
With the Board of Governors’ directives, the Division II Presidents Council determined it was not feasible to hold fall championships as planned or to postpone them to the spring, while prioritizing the health and well-being of student-athletes.
““This decision was discussed very thoroughly, and I assure you, it was not made lightly,” said Sandra Jordan, chancellor of South Carolina Aiken and chair of the council.
“It is important to note that fall student-athletes will be given eligibility-related flexibility to allow them championship opportunities in the future. As we move forward, we will continue to focus on providing the best championships experience for our winter and spring student-athletes who were not afforded those opportunities at the beginning of this pandemic,” Jordan said.
On July 22, the Division II Administrative Committee approved waivers to allow Division II student-athletes to retain the use of a season of competition if their team completes 50 percent or less of the sport’s Bylaw 17 maximum contests/dates of competition for the 2020-21 academic year.
Additionally, student-athletes who qualify for the season of competition waiver, or whose institutions cancel the sport season entirely, will receive an extension of their 10 semesters/15 quarters of eligibility, provided the student-athlete was otherwise eligible for competition during the 2020-21 academic year.
Division II schools and conferences can still choose to play part or all of their regular season in the fall semester if they follow the requirements set forth by the Board of Governors.
King said there has not been a great deal of discussion about fan attendance at AU sporting events.
“We honestly haven’t focused a lot on the attendance at games because most of our time has been spent looking at testing protocols for our student-athletes, coaches and staff. We’ve been trying to determine how to hold practices and/or games, how to make sure our facilities are as clean as possible and how we could even begin to travel,” he said.
“There are so many logistics here to consider and our priority is safety. We’re sorting through all the NCAA, GLIAC and state regulations and those have changed significantly over the last few days. One thing I can guarantee you – this situation is ever changing and those of us in Athletics have to be adaptable and flexible at this time,” King said.
King said the message throughout the university remains the same.
“The message now is that at some point we’re going to break free of this pandemic. When we do Ashland University needs to be positioned to do what it’s always done – provide a quality experience, academically and athletically. In the meantime, we’re putting all of our energy into taking care of our student-athletes, coaches and staff,” he said.
