You are working on Staging1

Big Ten Conference Won’t Start Swim Meets Until at Least January 1

In spite of some movement in the Big Ten Conference’s original decision to not play football this fall, the conference will continue to take a more cautious approach to other sports. That includes swimming & diving, along with several other winter season sports, where the conference informed coaches this week via email that no competition would take place prior to January 1st.

This is part of the conference’s ongoing pandemic response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Administrators Council has determined that with the exception of football, men’s and women’s basketball and perhaps men’s ice hockey (and women’s ice hockey for those schools that sponsor it), there shall be no competition prior to January 1st,” the email reads.

While many NCAA Division I teams have returned to training, not all of the Big Ten has yet been able to resume formal in-water practices.

The Big Ten follows the SEC, which last week announced that teams can begin their official season as of October 1, 2021. Other Division I conferences have not yet made announcements about their plans, though the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets of the ACC last weekend held their first meet of the season: an intrasquad.

The Pac-12’s latest update is still to postpone all sports competitions, including swimming, until at least January of 2021. That conference is home to both of the defending NCAA Division I Championship teams in swimming & diving: the Stanford women and the Cal men.

The Pac-12 is the only of the Power 5 conferences that has still not decided to play football this fall.

The latest update from the conference will include both fall season sports, which in the Big Ten includes cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball; and some winter sports, which in the Big Ten includes indoor track & field, swimming & diving, wrestling, and gymnastics.

Big Ten schools also sponsor programs in the NCAA winter sports of fencing, pistol, rifle, and bowling. Those sports are likely to be impacted as well, even though the teams do not compete in the Big Ten Conference.

While some pieces of the plan for NCAA swimming & diving are becoming a little clearer, there is still no solid information on championships, be it conference or national, except that the Missouri Valley Conference has voted to move its championship until April. That’s after the end of the traditional NCAA Championship meets, which are usually held in late March.

7
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

7 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
OrangeHoosier
4 years ago

Interesting that IU already has a 20-21 meet schedule up on their website, starting Oct. 1. Wishful thinking?

OrangeHoosier
Reply to  OrangeHoosier
4 years ago

And now it’s down…they pulled that in a hurry!

Guerra
4 years ago

Now is a good time to have a covid party and work on getting herd immunity.

Sam
4 years ago

it’s OK to get drunk every night in the dorm and hang out in large groups, but a swim meet would be too risky

Swimgeek
4 years ago

But tackle football is all good for October. 🙄

coachofficialmi
4 years ago

Ah, so the big money sports are okay, but not the rest

Golgotha
4 years ago

Not even intersquads?

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »