The Mid-American Conference on Saturday became the first league competing at college football’s highest level to postpone its fall season because of COVID-19 concerns.
The MAC said Saturday it is postponing all fall sports and it intends to have the student-athletes compete in the spring.
The sports affected include cross country, field hockey, football, soccer and women's volleyball.
The conference's presidents unanimously approved the decision in a vote.
There has not been a decision about winter sports.
With the MAC’s 12 schools facing a significant financial burden by trying to maintain costly coronavirus protocols, the conference’s university presidents made the decision to explore a spring season.
MAC schools rely heavily on revenue from playing road games against power conference teams. Most of those games were canceled when the Power Five went to exclusively or mostly conference games. Without them, the strain of trying to implement all that it would take to keep players and staff safe during a pandemic became too much.
There are several MAC schools in Ohio including the University of Akron, Bowling Green State University, Kent State University, Miami University, Ohio University and the University of Toledo.
A statement from Ohio University can be read here.
Stadium first reported the conference's decision.
