BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. (Dec. 9) - The Mountain East Conference Board of Directors unanimously approved plans to conduct athletics competition in winter sports beginning no sooner than Jan. 7, 2021. The board also approved schedules for conference fall sports competing in the spring semester.
The plans are contingent upon the ability to conduct sport while adhering to state and local guidelines and COVID-19 surveillance testing at each member institution utilizing the NCAA's guidelines.
"On behalf of our board, our athletics administrators, athletic staffs, and our student-athletes, we are pleased to be taking the next steps toward returning to competition in 2021," said Commissioner Reid Amos. "However, we fully acknowledge that there are still many challenges ahead of us as we make every effort to safely navigate returning to and sustaining intercollegiate competition. I am grateful for the resolve of everyone in our league to continue to plot a viable path forward."
The MEC will begin the winter sports season with no spectators. The league's Board of Directors will evaluate the policy no earlier than January 19, 2021.
Winter Sports Schedule/Championship Updates:
The upcoming men's and women's basketball seasons are scheduled to begin on Jan. 7, and conclude Feb. 27. The league plans for a 16-game schedule with the top 10 men's and women's teams advancing to the MEC Tournament at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, W.Va., from March 3-7.
The wrestling schedule is slated to consist primarily of conference dual and tri-matches beginning in January with a championship tournament on Feb. 6 at the ASRC on the campus of West Liberty University.
The men's and women's swimming and diving conference championships, held in conjunction with the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC), have been shifted to March 30-April 2, and will be held at the C.T. Branin Natatorium.
The NCAA recently announced a reduction of bracket and field sizes for winter (and spring) sports, but will maintain its regularly scheduled dates for a majority of its championships. (Check NCAA Championships schedules here.)
Fall Sports Schedule/Championship Updates:
Football: Teams will be scheduled to play a five-game divisional lineup beginning March 13. The winner from each division would play for the conference championship in mid-April.
Volleyball: MEC volleyball teams will be slated to compete in two, six-team divisions with an in-division round-robin schedule that includes 10 games beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 2. The top four teams in each division advance to tournament play. The quarterfinal round will be played at campus sites, and the advancing teams will play at a single site to be determined.
Men's and Women's Cross Country: The cross country regular season is scheduled to start Feb. 13 and conclude with the conference championship on March 20.
Men's Soccer: The men's soccer season is scheduled to be an eight-game, single-round robin beginning no earlier than Feb. 19. The top four teams will advance to the MEC Tournament slated for April 21-25 at campus sites.
Women's Soccer: The women's soccer season will consist of an eight-game schedule beginning no earlier than Feb. 26. The 12 teams will be divided into three, four-team divisions and play a double-round robin lineup within the division, and then have two additional non-division opponents. The top two teams in each division will advance to the MEC Tournament that will begin the week of April 19.
Men's and Women's Golf: The MEC Golf Championship, which has been traditionally held in the fall, shifts to April 20-22 at Avalon Lakes in Warren, Ohio.
Spring Sports Schedule/Championship Updates:
At this time, the Mountain East Conference is planning to conduct its spring seasons as scheduled in accordance with the NCAA mandated one-year reduction of allowable contests.
A complete list of MEC championships can be found
here.
(
Oct. 9) -- The Mountain East Conference Board of Directors unanimously decided today to begin winter sports no earlier than January 1, 2021. The MEC joins the majority of NCAA Division II conferences that have delayed the start of winter sports until January 2021. The MEC's winter sports include men's and women's basketball, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's indoor track and field and wrestling.
Additionally, the board resolved to pursue strategies that will preserve a year of eligibility for student-athletes competing in winter sports as the league works to gain access to the volume of testing supplies needed to return to competition.
"We are disappointed to delay the start of winter sports, largely due to the challenges with acquiring the needed volume of testing supplies, but we are committed to pursuing every route available that will allow those student-athletes to have a meaningful season, retain a year of eligibility and still compete for conference and national championships," Commissioner Reid Amos said. "We strongly believe that student-athletes in winter sports deserve the same eligibility relief that has already been afforded to fall and spring student-athletes, principally due to the loss of their national championship events last year and that the experience for all winter sport student-athletes will be significantly compromised by the effects of the pandemic. Our ultimate decisions regarding the length of schedules for our winter sports are dependent on whether or not present NCAA relief options are expanded for the benefit of our winter student-athletes."
Today's announcement comes in response to the NCAA's guidelines for resocialization of collegiate basketball announced last week (Sept. 25) and the update from the NCAA's COVID-19 Medical Advisory Group, including testing considerations, that was published yesterday (Oct. 8). The postponement to the start of the winter season is aimed at providing institutions the opportunity to acquire the needed testing supplies.
"This necessary delay until January is largely driven by the testing expectations established through NCAA guidelines," added Amos. "We are encouraged that with the emergence of increasingly affordable saliva-based PCR tests and point-of-care antigen rapid tests that the MEC will have the ability to exceed state and local guidelines, and meet NCAA obligations, if we can acquire the volume of tests needed in a timely fashion."
Schedule announcements for both fall and winter sports, as well as championship information for those sports, will be made in the coming weeks.
(
Aug. 13) - The Mountain East Conference Board of Directors today announced several decisions, including the postponement of fall sports until the spring semester. The board's resolutions come following last week's announcement from the NCAA Board of Governors regarding additional
requirements and the cancellation of 2020 NCAA Division II Fall Championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"All of the MEC presidents understand the importance of this decision, and the disappointment it will create, but it is the right decision because it prioritizes health, safety, and wellbeing above all else," said Wheeling University President Ginny R. Favede. "I have a great deal of empathy for the student-athletes and the impact this will have on them personally. Our student-athletes, coaches and staff have worked tirelessly over the last five months to overcome the many challenges during these times, and I am extremely proud of what our athletics department has accomplished. We certainly hope that our fall teams will be able to return to competition in the New Year."
The board also approved a reduced schedule model for fall sports that will shift to spring 2021 (football, women's volleyball, men's and women's soccer, and men's and women's cross country), that includes a conference championship, without participants exhausting a year of eligibility utilizing the legislative relief provided to NCAA Division II institutions for the 2020-21 season.
Additionally, the board approved several other recommendations from the league's Committee of Athletics Administrators:
• Suspend competition for winter sports until no earlier than November 1, 2020.
• Suspend all competition in all sports indefinitely, with MEC board review by no later than Oct. 15, 2020.
• Suspend the indoor track and field championship for the 2020-21 season.
• All countable athletically-related activities (CARA), excluding the restrictions regarding outside competition, for all MEC sports are permissible (as allowed under NCAA rules and Board of Governors requirements) at the discretion of each MEC member institution.
"I pledged to our board, administrators, athletics staffs, and most importantly to our student-athletes that we would exhaust every opportunity to stage competition this fall, and I am confident that is collectively what we have done within the MEC," said Commissioner Reid Amos. "Present public health challenges, combined with the new mandates put forth by the NCAA last week, create too great of a challenge on too short of a timeline to be able to conduct meaningful competition for our fall sports.
"We are tremendously disappointed for our student-athletes, and we recognize the gravity that comes with these decisions," Amos continued. "We now turn our efforts to keeping our student-athletes engaged with their coaches and teammates this fall, continuing to develop our return to play protocols, creating new schedules for delayed sports, and preparing for our 21 championship events now slated for the winter and spring. We will continue our commitment to providing a meaningful athletics experience for all of our student-athletes and crowning MEC champions during the 2020-21 academic year."
Note: The Mountain East has traditionally conducted its men's and women's golf conference championship in the fall, but the sport is classified by the NCAA as a spring sport, and thus will have a delayed conference championship in addition to NCAA postseason opportunities in the spring semester.
(
Aug. 6) - The following is a statement from the Mountain East Conference
following the NCAA's announcements on Wednesday.
With the recent announcement from the NCAA that includes the cancellation of Division II fall championships as well as several new prescriptive and prohibitive guidelines, the conference is currently working within its governance structure to determine how it will adjust its plans for conducting fall sports.
We remain, as always, committed to the health and well-being of our student-athletes. We also remain steadfastly committed to providing a competitive experience at the highest level we can achieve whenever possible during the 2020-21 academic year for all of our sports as public health conditions allow.
We understand the stress and anxiety that the circumstances around the pandemic have caused, including the uncertainty to the academic and athletic pursuits for everyone in the Mountain East Conference. We will continue to work in collaboration with our institutional leaders to provide direction and clarity as soon as we can
during these ever-changing circumstances.
(
July 21) – The Mountain East Conference has announced its updated plans for athletic competition this fall, which were approved by the MEC Board of Directors.
The strategy to stage competitions this fall is based on the public health conditions in the geographic footprint of the Mountain East Conference and will continue to be developed in consultation with local health officials and medical professionals.
The updated "Return to Play" plan, which maintains the elimination of non-conference competition for fall and winter team sports as the league announced earlier, includes:
• A delay in the start of official practice for football (Sept. 7), and for all other fall sports (Sept. 14).
• A delay in the start of competition in all fall sports until no earlier than October 1st.
• With the delay, contests in team sports originally scheduled for Sept. 4-30 will be played in the spring semester. Dates listed within previously announced schedules for Oct. and Nov. will be utilized.
• Conference tournaments for men's and women's soccer and volleyball will be scheduled for the spring semester.
• Conference tournaments for men's and women's golf and men's and women's cross country are still scheduled for the fall, but delayed from their previously announced dates. Dates and locations for those championships will be announced at a later date.
• Men's and women's basketball are scheduled to begin competition in the fall semester under this adjusted plan.
• The conference may ultimately make determinations to delay certain sports based on the level of contact risk relative to existing public health conditions or other health and safety concerns.
The Mountain East Conference is developing alternative strategies in order to maximize the opportunity for a meaningful student-athlete experience should public health conditions not permit the return to practice and/or competition in the timeline proposed within this revised plan. The alternative plans include a further delay to the start of competition until later in October and, if ultimately necessary, a move of all fall competition to the spring semester. The activation of any alternative plans will be based on the efficacy of resocialization of member campuses, local health conditions and in consultation with public health officials and medical professionals, and would be announced at the appropriate time.
"This announcement of our adjusted plans demonstrates our commitment to the well-being of our student-athletes and campus communities as well as our efforts to provide a meaningful experience for our student-athletes through competition this fall if public health conditions allow," Commissioner Reid Amos said. "These plans give us the necessary time and flexibility to consider resocialization on our campuses as well as the public health implications specific to the geographic areas of our institutions while maintaining the health and safety of our student-athletes as our chief priority."
(
July 15) – The following is a statement from the Mountain East Conference regarding the timing of return to competition this fall.
The Mountain East Conference understands and respects the difficult decisions made by NCAA Division II conferences around the country to suspend fall sports. After many lengthy conversations and meetings of our own, we know that these decisions do not come lightly.
At this time, the Mountain East Conference is making every reasonable effort to conduct athletic contests during the 2020-21 season if public health conditions, state and local guidelines and NCAA regulations allow us to do so.
We are exploring a variety of options to accomplish competition this fall, including extending fall seasons into the spring. Also, we are developing models that would accommodate all sports being contested solely in the spring semester if public health conditions warrant making that shift.
We will continue to monitor public health conditions and work with local health officials to help inform and shape our decisions in meetings over the next week within our governance structure. We believe it is our obligation to our members and student-athletes to be thorough and deliberate as we explore all options for competition as soon and as safely as possible.
(
June 12) – Following approval of its Board of Directors, the Mountain East Conference has announced its plans for the fall semester of competition.
The MEC Return to Competition Plan is contingent upon state and local public health conditions and associated restrictions, as well as any potential adjustments to NCAA championship schedules and/or legislation.
Due to the one-year NCAA mandated reduction of maximum contests in all Division II sports, the MEC's plan for 2020-21 includes the elimination of non-conference play for football, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball and men's and women's basketball.
Additionally, the league announced the start dates for practice for football (August 17) and all other fall sports (August 24), with competition for MEC fall sports beginning as early as Sept. 10.
Other than the elimination of week one for football, there will not be changes to the dates and locations for this fall. The modifications to the schedules for men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball and men's and women's basketball will be announced in the coming weeks.
If circumstances allow for the MEC's member institutions to successfully conduct its fall seasons, the conference will conduct its 2020-21 MEC Championships as originally planned.
(
March 20) -- After a thorough review of public health recommendations regarding gatherings, decisions by states and municipalities, member campus decisions affecting student-athletes and in consideration of the NCAA's decision to cancel all spring 2020 championships, the Mountain East Conference has announced the cancellation of all spring competitions, championships.
Additionally, the league will continue to suspend countable athletically related activities (CARA) until at least June 1.
The MEC Board of Directors approved the recommendation by the league's committee of athletic administrators on Friday. The league had previously suspended competition and CARA indefinitely last week.
"While our hope was that we could avoid this conclusion to the 2020 spring season for our student-athletes, it became increasingly clear over the last week that this is the appropriate decision to make for the well-being of our student-athletes, coaches, campus communities and the public," said Commissioner Reid Amos. "Through this unprecedented and challenging time, the health and safety of our student-athletes has always been and will continue to be our primary concern. We look forward to the time when, with the support of doctors and public health officials, we can safely resume collegiate athletics."
(March 13) - Mountain East Conference (MEC) Commissioner Reid Amos has announced that all league athletic competitions have been suspended indefinitely.
"In the interest of the safety and well being of everyone involved in intercollegiate athletics and the public, the Mountain East Conference has suspended all athletic competitions indefinitely. The decision was made with unanimous support of the league's Board of Directors following today's decision by the NCAA to cancel winter and spring championships for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year."
- Reid Amos, Mountain East Conference Commissioner
(March 13) - The NCAA has informed Division II institutions that they will be granted the ability to self-apply season-of-competition, and extension of eligibility waivers to student-athletes who have had their 2019-20 spring season canceled due to the COVID-19. Wheeling University spring sport athletes can be granted back their year of eligibility if they meet the following requirements:
(1) The student-athlete used a season of competition in a spring sport during the 2019-20 academic year;
(2) The student-athlete was eligible for competition when he or she competed during the 2019-20 academic year; and
(3) The student-athlete's season was ultimately canceled for reasons related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
(March 12) - The NCAA announced in a statement on Thursday afternoon the cancellation of all remaining winter and spring NCAA Championships effective immediately.
These decisions were based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, the ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities.
Wheeling University senior Danielle Stewart was set to compete in the pole vault at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, Saturday afternoon.
Note, the spring championship cancellation by the NCAA includes the following sports at Wheeling University: baseball, women's golf, softball, and men's and women's outdoor track & field.
