Ivy League cancels sports for the fall semester: reports

The Ivy League, home to some of the country’s top universities, will not compete in fall sports during the coming semester over concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, according to multiple reports. 

First reported by CBS Sports Wednesday, the news follows an announcement from two of the conference’s schools — Harvard and Princeton — that classes would be held online for the fall semester as COVID-19 continues to spike across the U.S.

Sources: Ivy League programs have been informed that fall sports have been cancelled.

The conference will not entertain any sports being played until after January 1st.

Winter sports will have an update in mid-July on their respective practice schedules.

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) July 8, 2020

The league has yet to release an official statement, though the move could be a foreshadowing of things to come for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college sports.

In March, the Ivy League announced that its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments would be canceled due of the onset of the pandemic. Other college sports conferences quickly followed, with the NCAA ultimately canceling March Madness entirely.

Football is the biggest autumn NCAA sport, but because the Ivy League competes in the lower Football Championship Series, few Football Bowl Series teams will be affected by the move. 

Volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, and women’s field hockey are also affected by the news.

Ivy League schools will also reportedly not allow winter sports such as basketball to begin play before January 1.

All of this comes as the Trump administration this week has doubled down on its desire for schools and colleges nationwide to resume in-person instruction this fall, despite multiple states and the U.S. as a whole recently setting records for new daily coronavirus case counts.