The Southland Conference has decided to postpone league competition for football and other fall sports to the spring semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Commissioner Tom Burnett says questions surrounding the long-term health effects of the virus was a factor in their decision.
“There’s been recent discussion and studies on myocarditis, heart inflammation, detected in student-athletes who had COVID,” said Burnett.
The league is giving schools the option of playing nonconference games in the fall, but McNeese, Nicholls, Southeastern Louisiana, and Northwestern State have decided to wait until the spring. Burnett says the plan is to play a conference schedule in 2021.
“If institutions want to compete for a conference championship or possible NCAA playoff in the spring that’s when it will occur,” said Burnett.
Football teams in the Southland have been holding workouts and the league held a virtual media day last month. Burnett says NCAA released a new set of health and safety requirements last week and that caught the attention of school leaders.
“That weighed in some people’s minds on whether they wanted to do this or not,” said Burnett.
Thursday’s decision by the Southland Conference means that U-L Lafayette and Tulane lost their season-opening opponents. But Houston Baptist says they still plan on visiting Louisiana Tech on September 19th.
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