College conference announces it will delay non-revenue sports, but football will start on time
By Kevin Duffey
Published:
Conferences around the country have started to make decisions on fall sports due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. The latest conference to make its decision is the Ohio Valley Conference, which competes in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
However, the OVC made a slightly altered announcement compared to other conferences. The non-revenue sports will be delayed until September 17; however, football is not included in that delay due to “existing contractual matters.”
“The Ohio Valley Conference Board of Presidents has reiterated its intention for the Conference to commence competition this fall if the facts surrounding the pandemic support it. The Board agreed to postpone the start of competition in fall Olympic sports until September 17 and to conduct conference-only competition in women’s soccer and volleyball. This decision does not include football at this time due to existing contractual matters,” the statement read.
The conference is attempting to keep all of its Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools on the schedule. Three of those are in the SEC: Alabama (UT-Martin), Ole Miss (SEMO) and Kentucky (Eastern Illinois). Obviously, the FBS programs pay big checks to FCS programs for making the trip and essentially taking a loss.
Within the Power 5 Conferences specifically, the Big Ten and Pac-12 have already announced they will play a conference-only schedule in 2020. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC haven’t given any such indication and are set to make a decision in “late July.”
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
