Dominick Ingram, Sports Editor

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, more uncertainty continues to plague the sports world. Sports leagues and conferences throughout the nation are forced to make tough decisions about the resumption of play for the 2020 seasons. 

The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) has debated the idea of resuming sports play, but ultimately announced it will postpone competition in cross country, football, soccer, and volleyball until the spring.

This decision has been a difficult one as the conference has continued to provide revisions to their plans that keep extending the postponement of sports competitions.

Augsburg has played a prominent role in these decisions, as Augsburg University President Paul Pribbenow is the Chair of the MIAC Presidents’ Council. Pribbenow stated, “our number one priority is the health and safety of students and staff. The decision to postpone competition for many of our fall sports was very difficult, as we know how much our student-athletes want to compete and how important athletics are to each of our campuses, but we need to put ourselves in a position to return to play as safely as possible”. 

As this news was a downer for many returning student-athletes, the conference compromised by allowing all postponed sports to continue their training, practice, and other related activities in accordance with NCAA Division III rules and campus, state and NCAA health directives. With the postponement effective until January 1, 2021, this will allow staff and students additional time to adjust to new safety protocols on campuses as well as the continuing of testing on the effectiveness of the new safety protocols. 

As the winter sport season approaches for many teams, the MIAC winter-sport coaches have begun work on building a framework for a compressed conference season beginning in January 2021. With uncertain news being released around the pandemic, these plans should be considered tentative as things can suddenly change for good or for worse.