NCAA Cancels Division II & III Fall Championships
The Indianapolis-based NCAA has announced championships for Division II and Division III fall sports have been canceled. The divisions’ respective presidents councils cited the COVID-19 pandemic and related operational, financial and logistical challenges as the reasons for the decision.
The decisions came just hours after the NCAA Board of Governors directed each division to make a decision on its fall sports championships by August 21.
Tori Murden McClure, chair of the Division III presidents council, said the council’s Championships Committee reviewed potential ramifications of holding the fall championships in the spring and found it was “logistically untenable and financially prohibitive.”
“Looking at the health and safety challenges we face this fall during this unprecedented time, we had to make this tough decision to cancel championships for fall sports this academic year in the best interest of our student-athlete and member institutions,” Tori Murden McClure, chair of the Presidents Council, said in a news release. “Moving forward, we will try to maximize the championships experience for our winter and spring sport student-athletes, who unfortunately were short-changed last academic year.”
Sandra Jordan, chair of the Division II presidents council, noted that fall student-athletes will be given eligibility-related flexibility to allow them championship opportunities in the future.
The Board of Governors is also requiring all member institutions to apply the previously-announced resocialization principles to fall sports and set a 50% sponsorship threshold for a fall championship to be conducted.
The NCAA has not announced a decision on the Division I fall championships.