The Ivy League canceled all sports for the fall semester on Wednesday due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will reevaluate after Jan. 1, 2021.
Student-athletes participating in Fall sports will still be allowed to practice in some capacity.
The decision comes while COVID-19 cases around the country are spiking. The U.S. reported a daily record of 60,000 new cases and an increase in the rate of new cases, according to CNBC. Concerns continue to grow about whether Power 5 schools will have a college football season.
“We all pay attention to it, just to see what’s out there, but I think their model is a little different than our model when it comes to football,” said Shayne Lyons, the chair of the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee and West Virginia athletic director.
The Ivy League has not decided whether they will postpone its football season to the spring. The conference loses more money annually on football than any other sport while basketball is the only sport that earns a profit.
With the decision to reevaluate after the start of next year, almost all of the non-conference basketball games would be canceled causing each basketball program to lose between $400,000 and $500,000.
It’s difficult to say if the Power 5 conferences will follow the Ivy League’s lead.
“I don’t think it’s going to have much bearing on what we do,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said. “Different part of the country, different approach to college sports and college football.”
The Ivy League was also the first conference to cancel its conference basketball tournament on March 10. After receiving criticism for what some said was an overreaction, nearly all other conferences followed suit within 72 hours.
