Ivy League Cancels All Fall Sports Due to COVID-19

Wednesday night, all ivy league sports were canceled for the fall semester.

Citing health and safety concerns due to COVID-19, the Ivy League shook up the college sports world. And maybe they’re on to something, after all, they are some of the smartest colleges in the world.

Ivy League Sports: First-Movers

On March 10 — when the idea of wearing masks only seemed apt around Halloween — the Ivy League became the first conference to cancel its post-season basketball tournament. Within a few days, other conferences canceled theirs as well, and soon enough every sports league was paused.

At the time, people weren’t familiar with COVID-19. “That’s over in China, we don’t have to worry about it here.” And then it exploded onto the greater New York area, changing life as we knew it. Now, cases are spiking in other states as the whole country deals with this pandemic.

People initially thought the Ivy League’s decision to cancel its basketball tournament was rash. We didn’t know how easy the virus could spread and how deadly it was.

Months later we have a better understanding of the virus and how to deal with it.

Ivy League Sports: When Will Their Athletics Return?

The conference has not ruled out the possibility of fall sports being played in the spring and has yet to make a decision on winter and spring sports. Per the release from the Ivy League:

“A decision on the remaining winter and spring sports competition calendar, and on whether fall sports competition would be feasible in the spring, will be determined at a later date.”

In the meantime, practice and training are still permitted if done according to the school’s state regulations. The conference has also announced the student-athletes of fall sports will not lose a season of Ivy League or NCAA eligibility.

Ivy League Sports: Will Others Follow?

Honestly, no one knows right now. My guess, others will have to follow. The reason they wouldn’t follow: money.

The schools in the Ivy League have large endowments and will be able to ride out this storm. Other schools rely heavily on revenue generated from sports.

For those who don’t know, there is a ridiculous amount of money in college sports.

In 2018, the Big Ten reported revenue of $759 million and the SEC reported just under $660 million. A good portion of this money is from TV deals. If these conferences don’t play, they will miss out on a lot of money.

If other conferences are able to play fall sports safely, hats off to them. I can’t see the logistics of playing and keeping everyone safe and healthy — but that’s for the people who get paid a lot more money than me to figure out.