ACC Delays Fall Olympic Sports Until (at Least) September 1

This week, the Ivy League decided they would not play any fall sports due to the spread of the Covid-19 virus. The ACC didn’t go that far on Thursday but the conference did decide to delay the start of its fall Olympic sports schedule until September 1.

From the ACC website:

The delay in competition includes all exhibition and non-conference games in the sports of men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball. The decision was unanimously approved by the ACC Board of Directors. ACC institutions will continue with their respective return to competition protocols in anticipation of a fall season. Any rescheduling of contests will also be determined by each school. The league continues to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on fall schedules and competitions with the understanding that there may be future changes, and that the priority remains the health and safety of our student-athletes.

The key part to that, of course, is that there could be more changes coming.

Football is not mentioned there because the announcement was specifically for Olympic sports. Plus, games don’t begin until after that date, anyway. But some sports, like volleyball, are affected.

For example, last year, Pitt’s volleyball team played an exhibition match and three regular season contests prior to September 1. That sport, as well as others, is now being pushed back slightly.

I would expect more of this from other conferences. As you remember this past spring, the postseason cancellations sort of all fell like dominoes relatively quickly.

Whether or not we see more fall cancellations like the Ivy League is still up in the air. But I’d expect other types of delays, if nothing else, to happen elsewhere.

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