The Latest: MEAC postpones football season
The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:
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The Mid-American Athletic Conference has suspended fall sports, becoming the third Division I league to postpone its football season.
Following fellow FCS conferences the Ivy League and Patriot League, the MEAC announced it would not have competition in the fall and consider trying to make up the schedule for those sports in the 2021 spring semester.
The MEAC is comprised of 11 historically black colleges, though its membership is in flux. Earlier this year, Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman announced they would be leaving the MEAC and joining the Southwestern Athletic Conference next year. MEAC-power North Carolina A&T has announced it will be moving to the Big South in 2021.
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The Miami Dolphins say they’re prepared to play with or without spectators this season, but they will not allow fans to attend their home preseason game or training camp, and there will be no tailgating during the regular season.
The changes were made because of the coronavirus and announced Thursday.
Stadium capacity for regular-season games will be determined later. Social distancing will be required if spectators are allowed, and fans and stadium employees will be required to wear masks when not eating or drinking.
“Things are changing week to week, and we are still more than two months away from our first scheduled regular-season home game,” Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel said in a statement. “So we’ll wait and work with local authorities, and make the determination about fans or no fans based on the data as we get closer. ... We’re ready for any scenario.”
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Wisconsin is delaying its renovation of the south end-zone seating area inside Camp Randall Stadium due to uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
The project was scheduled to begin after the 2020 football season and completed by the start of the 2021 schedule.
“We are obviously operating in a time of great uncertainty,” athletic director Barry Alvarez said in a statement. “Given our construction timeline and the timing around when decisions had to be made, we felt it was best to be prudent and delay the project for a bit.’’
The renovation includes enhanced seating options such as loge boxes and club seats as well as access to indoor and outdoor hospitality clubs and climate-controlled amenities and premium food offerings.
Wisconsin’s renovation of the Kohl Center is on a different timeline and hasn’t been delayed at this point.
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The Big East Conference has joined several other leagues in deciding to play only conference opponents during the fall sports season, if it's able to play at all.
The basketball-focused conference announced the decision Thursday. The Big East still hasn't decided whether it will conduct a fall season and championships.
The league said in the coming weeks, it will continue to monitor COVID-19 conditions across the country and in Big East communities and will provide further updates on dates and formats “as appropriate.” All decisions regarding fall conference competition will be guided by health and safety concerns and will be made in accordance with NCAA actions and policies.
The sports affected are men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross-country, volleyball and field hockey. The Big East's plans for the 2020-21 winter and spring sports seasons remain unaffected at this time.
The Big East’s members, located in eight of the country’s top 36 largest media markets, are Butler, Connecticut, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova and Xavier.
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The American Athletic Conference will require all its schools to test football players for COVID-19 at least 72 hours before competition.
The announcement Thursday by the American comes ahead of the expected release of recommendations from the NCAA.
The Power Five conferences — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — have been working toward a minimum standard for testing throughout major college football. Though the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced last week that they would play only conference games this football season to help minimize potential disruptions caused by COVID-19, other FBS conferences have not yet decided on scheduling formats for the coming season, which appears to be in peril because of the surging pandemic.
AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco says the testing protocols will apply throughout the regular and bowl seasons. More operational protocols are still being finalized, as are testing protocols for other sports.
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A top-division Russian soccer game has been called off after nine people at FC Sochi tested positive for the virus.
The Russian Premier League says Sochi’s game against Tambov will not take place as scheduled on Thursday. The league hasn’t said how many of the nine are players.
There was no mention of whether the game could be rescheduled. The league is scheduled to finish its season next Wednesday.
Sochi last month won a game 10-1 against FC Rostov after a virus outbreak forced Rostov to send a team of youth and academy players.
Another club, FC Orenburg, forfeited two games following an outbreak at the club and has since been relegated.
Another game was postponed last month after three virus cases among Dynamo Moscow players.
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