This past Friday, the Big South Conference extended their suspension of all competition and required athletics activities until March 30, “to mitigate the further spread of the COVID-19 virus,” according to an announcement from the conference.
In the announcement, it is stated the decision was made by the league’s Council of Executive Officers with consultation from the Council of Athletics Directors to, “protect the health and well-being of student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans.”
The CEO’s will come back together on March 30 to evaluate the status of conference championships and further athletic activities.
This further pushes back the Longwood University suspension of athletic events, which was set to be in place until March 18.
Required athletic activities that have been suspended include: competitions, practice or training sessions organized by each respective teams’ coaching staff.
However, Longwood athletes will still have access to resources from the athletic training staff and also the academic support staff, according to Assistant Vice President for Athletics Communications, Chris Cook.
Cook said Longwood athletics is not mandating that athletes engage in any sort of training, but did say that many have reached out to coaches and sports performance staff for training plans, which are being provided upon request. Athletic facilities are closed during the suspension, but athletes have access to the Longwood University Health and Fitness Center if they desire to train.
“To reiterate, our primary focus at this time is first and foremost the safety and well-being of our student-athletes and community,” said Cook in a text message.
Many professional, college and even high school sports leagues have also made the decision to either outright cancel or make postponements as a result of the growing pandemic, which caused concerns for college athletes who may not be able to finish their respective seasons and more for those who are in their senior season and would be leaving at the completion of this semester.
The NCAA released an announcement Friday, which stated, “Council leadership agreed that eligibility relief is appropriate for all Division I student-athletes who participated in spring sports. Details of eligibility relief will be finalized at a later time. Additional issues with NCAA rules must be addressed, and appropriate governance bodies will work through those in the coming days and weeks.”
A formal decision has yet to be made on this announcement, as it is only an agreement that the measures are appropriate. There are many different scenarios that would have to be examined in this situation such as scholarship allotments and also possible professional aspirations for the athletes.
All remaining winter and spring NCAA Championships have already been canceled for this season, which still leaves regular season play and conference tournaments as a possibility.
However, due to the aforementioned suspension of play and still developing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic as a whole, the uncertainty of this season is simply unprecedented.
In the Town of Farmville, there is currently one presumptive positive case of the COVID-19 virus.
Stay with The Rotunda for updates on this situation as it is still developing. Make sure to follow us on Twitter @longwoodrotunda.
The Big South Conference announced a suspension of all competition and required athletics activities until March 30.
