Ohio Valley Conference postpones its conference-only season

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The Ohio Valley Conference has decided to postpone its 2020 conference-only football season due to concerns over COVID-19.

The decision will also affect men’s and women’s cross country, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.

“After careful deliberation, weighing all the factors as presented, and given the current uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the OVC Board of Presidents voted to postpone the Conference’s fall sports to the spring,” said Beth DeBauche, OVC Commissioner, in a statement Friday.  “With the focus on student-athletes, the Conference leaders made this value-based decision with a commitment to continue to monitor the evolving situation and to strive to establish meaningful competitive opportunities in the spring for our fall sport student-athletes.

“While we understand there are many student-athletes, families, and communities that are disappointed by the lack of Conference competition this fall, and we deeply share that disappointment; it is the OVC’s ardent intention to ensure seasons postponed are not seasons canceled if the facts support it.  I want to thank our student-athletes and coaches for their resilience during these trying times, our staff and administrators for all their hard work and planning over the past five months, and the presidents and chancellors for their strong and principled leadership over this outstanding Conference.”

Although the league has canceled the conference football season, they will allow teams to compete in up to four non-conference competition this fall if they choose to.