NESCAC

[ergit]

Agreed.

[Deacs24]

Bates not altering their class schedule and not sending kids home. But Bates is on a different academic calendar. "Winter Break" was several weeks ago.

Not sure about their athletics schedule yet....

[ah23]

And when Tufts cancels their season you will feel alot different.

From a purely selfish standpoint, as a NESCAC/D3 lacrosse fan it would be so frustrating to have potentially one of the greatest offenses ever get shut down by a virus. I definitely feel for all the spring athletes whose seasons (or careers) may be in jeopardy.

Bates not altering their class schedule and not sending kids home. But Bates is on a different academic calendar. "Winter Break" was several weeks ago.

Not sure about their athletics schedule yet....

Even given today's statement from Pres. Spencer (“We do not have plans at this time to suspend our winter semester on campus.”), it would be hard to keep athletics going if other NESCAC schools/athletics departments suspend play. Maine has no documented COVID-19 cases yet...but that likely does not reflect reality - Maine has barely done any testing. Source for all of this. Along those lines, Bowdoin is following the CDC's guidelines (no sponsored travel to high-risk areas, etc.) but has not indicated plans to cancel the spring semester even after spring break - and they had a student studying in Italy actually briefly return to campus.

Scrub those hands and practice social distancing, y'all. Let's hope that NESCAC presidents realize/trust that if student athletes don't leave campus during spring break then they can't possibly bring COVID-19 back to campus or spread it!

[ah23]

"The risk of having hundreds of people return from their travels to the campus is too great," Biddy Martin, the college's president, said in a letter to the college community. "The best time to act in ways that slow the spread of the virus is now."

Forgot to mention this, from an article about Amherst's decision. I totally understand that logic and understand why lots of colleges - UW, Harvard, plenty of others - are going online-only after spring break.

HOWEVUH. What I don't understand is how that also applies to athletics. None of the concerns about the general student body apply to spring athletes. They remain on campus the entire time - they don't go home, they don't go on vacation, and they are relatively isolated given that they live on a college campus and are not traveling (and when they are, they are on school-approved travel with the same group of people they are always with). I understand that Pres. Martin is acting out of an abundance of caution - what I don't understand is the logic behind this particular move.

[ah23]

Middlebury has suspended all spring sports as well.

In case anyone is interested, here is a website that is tracking American colleges/universities as they make decisions based on COVID-19. Pretty helpful table.

[kramerica.inc]

https://d3sports.com/notables/2020/03/a ... for-spring

[pcowlax]

Interesting table. The current situation really isn't tenable and will likely work itself out in the next few days. If enough colleges start shutting down, the pressure on the others to follow suite will be irresistible. I don't see how some NESCAC schools would be able to go on playing even if they want to if others have shut their seasons down. And from both a PR and legal standpoint, I don't see how you could possible have athletes remain on campus to play games while the rest of the students are home taking classes online. If the number of testing kits finally ramps up, I expect we will see a massive jump in cases and, unfortunately, with the way organizations are approaching this, likely the cancellation of the season. Just awful for the kids.

[TopShelf585]

HOWEVUH. What I don't understand is how that also applies to athletics. None of the concerns about the general student body apply to spring athletes. They remain on campus the entire time - they don't go home, they don't go on vacation, and they are relatively isolated given that they live on a college campus and are not traveling (and when they are, they are on school-approved travel with the same group of people they are always with). I understand that Pres. Martin is acting out of an abundance of caution - what I don't understand is the logic behind this particular move.

Overreaction? Probably
It's an easy call from the Admin side though- do nothing and your'e right you’ll get a pat on the back but, be wrong and it'll cost you big. Take athletics out of the equation because it's a CYA mentality and in this climate I for one wouldn't want to make a mistake. I can only imagine how many parents of Amherst students are attorneys.

I'm interested in seeing what happens with D1 Basketball- March Madness is only 7 days away.
Let's see if the same approach applies when big money is on the line.

[Laxfan4]

The Ivy League Basketball Championship is cancelled both men and women.

[laxxer27]

My neighbor is a HS AD in CT. The states higher ups are in a meeting about cancelling all spring HS sports in CT. I would imagine if they do all neighboring states will follow

[Dave]

Rediculous...

[pcowlax]

CT just cancelled the post-season tournaments for all winter sports, would not be surprised in spring is next. While I take COVID quite seriously, the risk of spread at a lacrosse game is minimal if you practice some common sense standing on the sidelines watching.

[ah23]

To be honest, I expected the NESCAC to go closed contests (no spectators, teams and relevant staff only) and I would have agreed with that decision. It fits one of the main counters (social distancing) preventing crowds from assembling in close proximity where a virus could spread quickly. I agree that some people could watch a lacrosse game and use common sense to minimize risk, but I think a lot people lack basic common sense and would do the whole "oh please, I know what I'm doing" thing right before coughing into their palm and shaking hands with parents/players afterwards. After all, no one likes enthusiastic handshakes more than lacrosse dads on the sideline . To quote Men in Black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

Obviously this would be unfortunate for family/fans, but the NESCAC generally has good online broadcasts and that's a relatively small sacrifice to make in the grand scheme of things.

Pcowlax and TopShelf585, totally get the logic from the school side of things. Better safe than sorry, CYA, etc. As for the issue of athletes staying on campus: I imagine that if you asked players, they would all be fine staying on a fairly empty campus with reduced services. Spring athletes already do that during spring breaks (Bates does it twice because of the break before Short Term). Whether that's economically feasible for the school is a different question. I'm definitely biased though - I am selfishly frustrated that the student body traveling to random places for spring break impacts athletes who aren't traveling at all.

[Muleski]

Very unfortunate set of circumstances. I've got a fair amount of NESCAC experience. Alum, married to an alum, three kids who are alums. All of us NESCAC athletes. I have served on the board of two NESCAC schools, and my wife has served on a third. We have known a number of NESCAC presidents and I think have a good handle on how they think, govern their schools, and jointly govern the NESCAC.

My strong hunch is when they conference tomorrow afternoon, they will vote to shut all campuses no later than this coming Friday, will vote to cancel {not suspend, etc.} ALL athletic activities: all games, all practices, etc., for the rest of the spring. I am 99% sure that they are all already in agreement with that, actually.

The bigger issues are how to protect the health and overall well being of the student body. Not every student on these campuses comes from a family or home situation that is necessarily a more healthy one than being on campus. Not every student is equipped, technology-wise to handle class work remotely form home. For many, their campus and student life is a safe haven. You also have on average 25% of the student body being non US citizens, so simply arranging for where hundreds of students will head off on Friday is a complicated challenge. This is an even bigger challenge for a university like Harvard, which just pulled the plug on their spring. Mose disadvantaged students, very large international populations. Massachusetts was juts declared a disaster area.

There is no way that a college president in the NESCAC is going to vote for business as usual, confidently stating that his/her school will simply weather this unknown storm. They are acutely aware of their impact on the towns and cities where these schools are located, and that is a factor.

This is an article about Midd's decision:

https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/sto ... 012219002/

Can't see a single vote to stay open among the NESCAC.

[Nothing But Net]

I commented earlier on another tread, about the Schools CYA tought

There is serious liability fears that if these schools would face if they allowed their teams to participate in locations designated as current “States of Emergency”, and it was deemed that the College would be considered negligent if the worst was to occur.(one of their student-athletes compete at an away competition and somehow comes become infected then passes that along to others and a tragedy occurs)
I am assuming that many small schools do not have the budget or desire to waiver through the courts or put themselves in a position of a potential lawsuits that could be forthcoming in such an event. These schools would be heavily criticized that they knowingly but others in harm’s way and risk. And, it not like they can just quarantine (Isolate) the team, since the team still would be a representation of the College.
I guess the cost of shutting down the program is less expensive than paying potentially millions if something horribly happened in their minds.

[Nothing But Net]

Capture.JPG (79.04 KiB) Viewed 4816 times

Unfortunately, The Lawyers are everywhere…. The NESCAC is CYA

[ah23]

All NESCAC spring sports officially cancelled. All NESCAC schools operating remotely. Can’t believe it.

[TopShelf585]

The seal has been broken- I predict by end of the week the list of schools playing will be shorter than those not.

[pcowlax]

The seal has been broken- I predict by end of the week the list of schools playing will be shorter than those not.

Agree. Really, once you are telling everyone that they have to take their classes remotely, there is just no tenable way to have athletes stay on campus and keep playing. What a fricking shame, Tufts and Williams had a shot to win it all this year (and maybe Amherst as well though they may have needed someone else to pick off Tufts). Understandable, especially in light of litigious CYA but a damn shame.

[DanielHand9]

https://coronavirus.tufts.edu/3-10-2020 ... s-message/

''Following a decision of the NESCAC presidents, the NESCAC league and championship play are canceled. Further, Tufts, like many of our NESCAC colleagues, will not have any spring sports for the remainder of the semester. We await guidance from the NCAA about eligibility for spring post-season play. We realize this will be upsetting to our athletes and their supporters. We recognize the dedication and hard work of our student athletes, and we look forward to resumption of NESCAC competition in the future.''

Does this mean the NESCAC came to a unanimous decision to cancel spring sports? Will students gain another year of eligibility? I am sure some of the top point producers could have an impact at some D-1 power house schools...