Report: Ivy League coaches expect all fall sports, including football to move to spring 2021

The Ivy leabgue is expected to make an announcement on Wednesday about the status of fall sports amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. The Athletic is now reporting multiple Ivy League football coaches told Bruce Feldman and Nicole Auerbach that they expect the announcement to be that the league is moving all fall 2020 sports, including football, to spring 2021.

The Ivy League is generally far down the list of college football conferences in terms of import, but this could be an exception. The Ivy was the first conference to cancel its basketball tournament in March. Within a few days, major conferences were following suit and eventually all spring sports were canceled.

College athletic administrators have told Feldman and Auerbach, “that they expect a cascading effect following the Ivy League’s decision, adding that it essentially will give other FCS leagues — such as the Patriot League, to start — cover to make similar decisions.” They think this could be a domino that moves on to Group of 5 and Power 5 schools no later than early August.

The first weekend of college football is currently scheduled for August 29th, just under eight weeks away. The NCAA as a whole is not making decisions on this, leaving it up to conferences and schools to figure out next steps. Once the Ivy League announces its decision on Wednesday, we might start to see the ball roll forward for the bigger conferences.