There will be no football games this fall at Harvard Stadium. (PHOTO COURTESY: Matt Noonan/NoontimeSports.com)

By Matt Noonan 

The Ivy League has made it official: there will be no fall sports this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Ancient Eight made a formal announcement late this afternoon following a slew of reports from multiple reporters and outlets about the league’s plans for the upcoming fall sports season.

A decision about winter and spring sports will be made at a later date, according to today’s press release.

While no games will be played this fall, the Ivy League will permit “practice and other athletic training opportunities” for those student-athletes who are on campus. The league will also provide its members with guidelines to help its coaches and student-athletes with conditioning and practice plans.

According to Heather Dinich of ESPN.com, the Ivy League’s decision to cancel its fall sports season was due to the various “COVID-19 policies” each school had put in place two weeks earlier for their upcoming school year.

How will today’s announcement impact the rest of the college sports landscape? The answer: we should know more in the coming days and weeks.

As of now, it appears some college football, as well as fall sports, will occur later this year, but it’s likely we will see more schools and conferences follow the Ivy League like they did earlier this year after the conference canceled its basketball tournaments at Harvard University in March. The Ivy League also canceled its spring sports season.

In addition to the Ivy League, the Centennial Conference (CC) announced yesterday they would “suspend any intercollegiate competition for sports scheduled for the fall semester,” which included football. However, the conference could provide its football teams with some games in the spring.