As the spread of COVID-19 continues throughout the country, one NCAA conference will be taking the safe approach and suspending its fall sports. The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Council of Presidents and Chancellors announced Thursday that all 2020 fall sports will be suspended indefinitely.
There is still a possibility that the sports could be played in the spring but that could be difficult due to many factors. The conference has yet to suspend their winter sports so hopefully we can see the Howard University debut of 5 star prospect Makur Maker.
As stated in the release from the conference the effect of COVID-19 in the African American communities did have play a part in this decision. The MEAC is comprised of 11 HBCUs.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes continue to be our number one priority. We have made the decision to suspend all sports competitions after careful review of the current conditions and consideration of the potential exposure that regular travel to competitions may cause and ongoing extensive physical contact”
Howard University President and Chair of MEAC Council of Presidents and Chancellors, Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick
Sadly this means without the MEAC there will be no Celebration Bowl or MEAC/SWAC challenge this year.
We know at minimum two MEAC programs, defending champs North Carolina A&T and Florida A&M, have had positive cases of COVID-19 since returning to campus.
We will have to see if this will be the start of more conferences taking a look at making similar decisions.
