Mercer fall sports postponed after SoCon decision, but some games could be played
Mercer will not have conference sports this fall as its conference announced Thursday that it would be postponing all athletics through the calendar year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Southern Conference will explore potentially playing those fall sports seasons in the spring of 2021 but has not announced any specific plans. The SoCon will leave it open for schools to play non-conference games in 2020.
Drew Cronic is in his first year as Mercer’s head football coach. Mercer athletic director Jim Cole, said in a statement Thursday, said he is open to exploring a partial schedule for the fall.
“Today’s decision by the SoCon was not one that was taken lightly,” Cole said. “Although disappointed by the move to the spring, I look forward to meeting with our student-athletes as soon as possible and charting a new path forward. The actions by the conference leave flexibility for a partial schedule this coming semester. I look forward to pursuing all options related to games in the fall.”
The following sports are impacted by this decision: football, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball.
In addition to the set fall sports, the following sports that have practice and fall seasons including men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s lacrosse, baseball and softball will be determined by each of the universities in the conference.
“This decision was made with extensive evaluation and conversation,” Southern Conference Commissioner Jim Schaus said. “Ultimately, we felt it necessary to ensure the health and safety of student-athletes, coaches and staff. This decision was also supported by the conference’s medical advisory committee.
The move comes after major Power 5 FBS conferences, the Big 10 and the PAC-12 announced this week that there would be no fall sports for its teams. The FCS, the subdivision that Mercer belongs to, also canceled its football playoffs this week. The SoCon joins other major FCS conferences to postpone its fall sports including the Ivy league, Big Sky, Big South, MEAC and more.
“I am greatly saddened to not be able to conduct our fall conference competition. We know what this means to our student-athletes, coaches, staff and loyal fans, but safety must come first,” Schaus said. “We are still hopeful that we can have these sports successfully compete in the spring. We will continue to daily monitor the COVID-19 situation in order to make prudent and necessary decisions regarding athletic practice and competition in the future.”
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 4:30 PM.