As the NFL and NCAA plunge headlong into an on-time 2020 football season, it continues to be a different story up north. The CFL season is delayed at best and is still at risk of being outright canceled, and Canada's equivalent of the NCAA has all but canceled the 2020 football season.
On Monday, U Sports announced it will cancel its postseason offerings for football, as well as cross country, soccer, women's field hockey and women's rugby.
“Although the Canadian sport system is working together to create evidence-based return to training, practice and competition protocols, it is not currently feasible or safe due to the COVID-19 Pandemic for U SPORTS to be able to offer fall championships given the academic realities of student-sport,” said Dr. Taryn Taylor, U SPORTS Chief Medical Officer and representative on the Own the Podium Return to Sport Task Force. “We continue to work with public health officials across the country to examine possibilities for return to play for the winter 2021 term.”
In response, three of the four conferences announced they will cancel their fall sports programming -- Canada West, Atlantic University Sport, and Ontario University Athletics.
That leaves the Quebec Student Sports Federation as the only Canadian sports conference that has yet to cancel its 2020 season.
"We understand that the (QSSF) is continuing to review the situation and will wait to make a decision in the future," McGill University, a QSSF member, said Monday.
If and when the QSSF cancel its fall 2020 sporting calendar, Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, which competes in NCAA Division II, could be the only Canadian university to compete in football this fall.
However, as a source points out, Simon Fraser's hands could be tied due to a Canadian government requirement of a 14-day quarantine for all international travel; SFU is scheduled to cross the border five times this fall, beginning with their Sept. 5 opener at Texas A&M-Commerce.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.