Conference games-only for PAC schools
NEW WILMINGTON – The Presidents’ Athletic Conference announced Tuesday that its Presidents’ Council has unanimously approved a conference-games-only scheduling format for all varsity sports during the 2020 fall season.
All fall sports except football will have a first contest date of Sept. 7. Football will begin its nine-game league schedule Sept. 19. The decisions were made during a pair of virtual Presidents’ Council meetings in June.
“The PAC is blessed with a heritage of strong leadership collaboration coupled with a unique geographical configuration that makes athletic competition within the NCAA guidelines possible,” said Dr. Calvin Troup, president of Geneva College and chair of the PAC Presidents’ Council. “We’re grateful for the work in establishing conference protocols that we trust will maximize opportunities to compete for our student-athletes while minimizing the risks we face together in these challenging times.”
The structure and format of the intra-conference schedule model will continue to be refined over the next month, and is subject to change as situations and conditions evolve, the PAC said.
“The Covid-19 pandemic presents us with many unprecedented challenges as a conference. … The PAC is doing everything in its power to provide a safe ‘Return to Sport’ framework for the fall 2020 semester,” said PAC commissioner Joe Onderko. “There are certainly aspects of this public health challenge that are clearly beyond our control. By focusing on what we can control, we hope to maximize the possibility of holding a legitimate, comprehensive fall sports season while protecting the health of our student-athletes to the best of our ability.”
PAC teams are now scheduled for nine football games. Washington & Jefferson was scheduled to open the season Sept. 5 at Wittenberg in a non-conference game that is now canceled. Waynesburg’s game that day at home against Muskingum also has been scrapped.
W&J was to host Thiel in the PAC opener Sept. 12 but that game has been switched to Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. Waynesburg was scheduled to host Geneva Sept. 12. Both the Yellow Jackets and Golden Tornadoes have an open date Oct. 31 but neither school has released a revised football schedule.