BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. – The Mountain East Conference board of directors announced Thursday that it has postponed football season to the spring semester, while also suspending the 2020-21 indoor track & field championship. In addition, the 2020-21 campaign for the wrestling team will begin no earlier than November 1.
 
The board also approved a reduced schedule model for football, including a conference championship, without participants exhausting a year of eligibility. That model utilizes the legislative relief provided to NCAA Division II institutions for the 2020-21 season.
 
The board also approved several other recommendations, including the resumption of countable athletically-related activities (CARA), excluding the restrictions regarding outside competition, for all MEC sports at the discretion of each MEC member institution. This recommendation follows the guidelines of the requirements by the NCAA rules and Board of Governors that were announced late last week.
 
"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."
 

Mountain East Conference Commissioner Reid Amos

"We are tremendously disappointed for our student-athletes, and we recognize the gravity that comes with these decisions. 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."