Ivy League Cancels Fall Sports Due to COVID Pandemic

There will be no intercollegiate athletic competition this fall due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Ivy League has decided.

League officials said given the many restrictions on travel and gatherings that schools are putting in place, competition won’t be possible before the end of the fall semester.

A decision on winter and spring athletics will be made later, the news release said.

The league is allowing practice and training, but only to the extent individual universities and states permit. It plans to issue guidelines for “a phased approach to conditioning and practice activities to allow for interaction among student-athletes and coaches that will begin with limited individual and small group workouts and build to small group practice sessions, if public health conditions permit,” the news release said.

“As a leadership group, we have a responsibility to make decisions that are in the best interest of the students who attend our institutions, as well as the faculty and staff who work at our schools,” the Ivy League Council of Presidents said in a statement. “These decisions are extremely difficult, particularly when they impact meaningful student-athlete experiences that so many value and cherish.”

Princeton is allowing freshmen and juniors to live on campus this fall, and sophomores and seniors in the spring, but all classes will be taught online. Students can opt to stay home instead of live on campus.

Student-athletes can seek a fifth year of college so they can compete again as undergraduates, the league said, but those decisions will be made by individual institutions.

When the spring 2020 season was ended early due to the coronavirus, Princeton decided against allowing seniors to withdraw and come back for a fifth year in 2021.