WKU Hilltoppers: Conference USA Moves Volleyball, Soccer Seasons to Spring
On Friday, just as everyone was getting into their cars for the weekend and leaving all of their cares behind them for 48 hours…
On Friday, just as everyone was getting into their cars for the weekend and leaving all of their cares behind them for 48 hours, Conference USA dropped the biggest Friday news dump the conference has ever done, announcing that all fall sports, sans football, will be moved to the spring.
“We value the opportunity for our schools to compete at the highest level and play for championships” said C-USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod of the decision. “Moving these sports to the spring maintains those opportunities for our student-athletes, coaches and fans.”
Shortly after the news, WKU had this to say:
As announced earlier this afternoon, the Conference USA Board of Directors has announced the postponement of fall team sports (with the exception of football), as well as fall C-USA championships in those sports, to the spring of 2021.
This move comes following the NCAA Division I Board of Directors’ decision to move Division I fall championships to spring. The sports affected for WKU Athletics are women’s soccer and volleyball.
A decision is still being made on the C-USA competition timeline for cross country in the 2020–21 school year. More information will be provided when available.
Other C-USA sports that participate in the fall but hold their championship in the spring, such as golf and tennis, can compete this fall at each member institution’s discretion. WKU will still pursue fall competition opportunities for men’s golf, women’s golf and women’s tennis.
WKU Football will announce its full, updated 2020 schedule Monday.
The move to the spring for soccer and volleyball allows C-USA schools to not only compete for a C-USA Championship, but have an opportunity to play for a spot in the NCAA Championships.
“We value the opportunity for our schools to compete at the highest level and play for championships” C-USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod said. “Moving these sports to the spring maintains those opportunities for our student-athletes, coaches and fans.”
Dates of competition and formats for the fall sports moving to the spring will be announced at a later date.
The conference cited a piece of news out of the NCAA earlier on Friday, saying that the Division I Board of Directors is working towards hosting its fall championships in the spring after announcing no fall championships would be held in the fall earlier this month.
While other schools across the conference have more than just two sports impacted, for the Hilltoppers, that means we’ll have to wait until the spring to see the Lady Toppers take the soccer pitch and volleyball court.
It’s a curious move by the conference that is obviously made for one reason: To save the 2020 fall football season. As of the publication of this story, CUSA is one of just six Division I conferences still holding out hope to play football this fall.
My thoughts are two-fold:
If you are deeming that one sport is safe enough to play, why aren’t you deeming all sports are safe enough to play? This is especially exemplified by deeming football, a team with 22 players on the field at any time and over 50 on the sideline at once, safe while soccer and volleyball, also a 22-player game and a game with very little person-to-person contact, unsafe.
The messaging is very smart: Claiming that you’re moving these seasons to the spring, so they can have a chance to compete for both a conference and national championship, is brilliant, even if far-fetched (if WKU hasn’t won a volleyball title yet, ain't no way any other C-USA school is close to winning one, either)
My initial thoughts about keeping football alive were simple: Money. But, the closer you look at it, the more curious it seems.
Fans in the stands for an entire season are a big question mark, and will be until the season ends, and there are only six buy games on the C-USA schedule this year:
Sure, there’s still money to be had in broadcasting rights, but as for not playing games because you’re missing a paycheck — only four or five schools are impacted on that front.
Look, I want a football season as much as anybody else, but you have to admit sacrificing the non-revenue sports and still plowing ahead feels a bit suspect.
All in all, Conference USA’s decision means a delay into watching a pair of highly-anticipated seasons on the Hill. The WKU soccer team, projected to finish in the top-half of the table this year, went 10–7–1 a season ago.
The WKU volleyball team, always a threat to earn national attention and coming off their first-ever regional hosting season, went 32–2 before falling to Louisville in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in five sets at Diddle Arena.