Patriot League Needs To Act
In an announcement yesterday, the NCAA has announced the return of Division One basketball. Games will start on November 25, presumably when most students are completing their academic semester of classroom work. There will be maximum of 27 games, a minimum of 13, no scrimmages, and a recommendation for 4 out of conference games. Full team practices can begin Oct 14, although most schools in the Patriot League are already having conditioning and individual instruction.
There are about 150 student athletes on campus, I do not know how many per individual sports, except for field hockey of which there are four. Football, I hear have about 35 on campus. Bucknell, Boston, and Colgate are having all classes returned, and I have seen social media pictures of athletes at practice on campus. In field hockey, I have seen pictures of BU, Bucknell, American and Lehigh on their practice fields.
In other news, the BIG TEN is returning to play football, and there is limited activity in the other sports.There are limited connections to play field hockey with other Big Ten schools in much the same way a spring season would be constructed. Many players have gone to Europe to play for the semester while doing their academic work online. I know of one Ivy school that got their whole freshman field hockey class to play in Europe. The ACC is playing inter-league.
I have not yet heard of any Patriot League meetings to announce a return of basketball but I did get a head fake, as the move to ESPN plus was announced dramatically yesterday. I would hope the Patriot League would now more expeditiously move in light of the NCAA’s announcement.
Covid testing at Lafayette, Bucknell, Colgate,Lehigh, and Boston University has shown about a 2/10’s of one percent Covid infection rate among the returning and all students in residence.
It seems the time is now for the Patriot League to act.
Lafayette College Field Hockey 