NEAC Presidents’ Council Decision Regarding Men’s and Women’s Basketball
Following a unanimous decision by the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Presidents' Council, conference competition and championships for men's and women's basketball have been canceled for the 2020-21 season.
The NEAC will allow institutional autonomy regarding practice, training and outside competition opportunities for its basketball teams during the winter season while also requesting that institutions continue to adhere to local, state, and federal health guidelines as well as NCAA recommendations.
Over the last eight months, NEAC Athletic Directors have been meeting biweekly while the NEAC Presidents' Council has been meeting monthly to continuously monitor the state of the pandemic and review relevant data related to return to play. NEAC administrators have been and will continue to work on developing plans and discussing the necessary logistics to facilitate competition in the future. Given the current state of the pandemic, today's announcement is attributed to three main factors:
1. Community spread and positivity rates are increasing in our local communities and are anticipated to continue doing so following the winter holidays.
2. Challenges still exist around access to testing, affordable testing and turnaround time for results to meet the current NCAA recommendations of testing student-athletes and staff multiple times a week for a high-risk transmission indoor sport such as basketball.
3. With a conference membership that spans throughout multiple states, current state and local travel restrictions do not allow for a geographically-diverse conference such as the NEAC to commit to a conference schedule that requires crossing state lines and potential overnight trips.
"We are aware that the cancellation of competition is met with tremendous heartbreak and disappointment for our student-athletes, coaches, and greater campus communities," said NEAC Commissioner Stephanie Dutton.
"We know the value of participating in intercollegiate athletics cannot be replaced and there is nothing more that we want than to have our student-athletes competing again. That said, maintaining the health and safety of all those affiliated with our programs remains our priority and given the current state of the pandemic within our conference footprint, we cannot facilitate a conference schedule in this environment at this time."
As additional updates are available regarding NCAA rules and regulations, the NEAC will continue to share that information with our member institutions. A decision regarding spring sports will be made at a later date.
