The Mid-American Conference has become the first league competing at college football’s highest level to cancel its fall season because of COVID-19 concerns.
A person with knowledge of the decision tells The Associated Press the university president's voted to not play in the fall and consider a spring season.
Of the 12 schools in the MAC, six are from Ohio, including Miami University, Ohio University, Bowling Green State University, University of Toledo, Kent State University and University of Akron. Three of the schools are in Michigan, including Western Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University and Central Michigan University. Ball State University is the only MAC school in Indiana. The conference also includes University of Buffalo and Northern Illinois University.
At Miami University, fall sports affected are men's and women's cross country, field hockey, football, men's soccer, women's soccer and women's volleyball. Winter sports are still up for consideration, according to a statement from Miami.
Ohio University said they "look forward to a day when they can safely return to competition."
— Julie Cromer (@juliecromerOHIO) August 8, 2020
While University of Cincinnati is not in the MAC, the announcement impacts two scheduled games -- one against Western Michigan, the other against Miami -- in the fall season.
MAC schools rely heavily on revenue from playing road games against power conference teams. Most of those games were canceled when the Power Five went to exclusively or mostly conference schedules. Without them, the strain of trying to implement all that it would take to keep players and staff safe during a pandemic became too much.
