Athletics: A Season Unlike Any Other

Athletics

A Season Unlike Any Other

by Adam Williams Director of Athletic Communications

MHU Mens Basketball plays Catawba in a mostly-empty Chambers Gymnasium. Photo by Cindy Whitt.

The title says it all. The 2019-20 season was only a precursor of what was to come for the 2020-21 collegiate athletic calendar. Following a shortened spring season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many questions and uncertainties arose heading into the fall of 2020. The South Atlantic Conference answered those questions regarding fall sports in August, postponing play until the spring semester. Football, volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s golf were all affected by this announcement.

The biggest piece of the puzzle was surrounding men’s and women’s basketball. The SAC declared a 22-game season, consisting of 20 conference matchups. A minimum of 10 conference games were to be played to qualify for the postseason tournament. However, due to the increasing spread of COVID-19 and positive tests, the schedules fluctuated on a consistent basis with numerous postponements and cancellations, often forcing teams to play a series of games with only one day of rest in between. The SAC later reversed its decision on the 10-game requirement and announced that all teams would qualify. Spring sports, such as baseball, softball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field, men’s and women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s golf remained relatively unphased. Baseball and softball had their maximum amount of games reduced by 10 while the lacrosse schedules lost but two games on their calendars.

It was later decided that rather than run cross country along with the track and field schedules, cross country was combined into the outdoor track and field portion of the spring. While men’s and women’s tennis and men’s and women’s golf did not hold preseason matches and tournaments in the fall, their spring schedule was not affected. In order for golf to schedule their tournaments, the hosting venue had to approve and provide coursespecific protocols for all teams to follow. The fall sports that moved into the spring suffered drastic schedule cuts.

Football, which normally plays between 10-11 games a season, was cut to four and moved into two divisions. Men’s and women’s soccer were also broken up into three pods consisting of four teams apiece with each team playing one another twice, once at home and once on the road. Volleyball, which normally plays between 28-30 matches a year, was cut to 10. Postseason tournaments for the fall teams remain, but are also slightly altered. Football’s top seed in each division will square off to determine the SAC Champion. The top two seeds in each pod for soccer will move on with the two best ranking third place teams making up the eight-team bracket.

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