The Southwestern Athletic Conference announced the postponement of all scheduled fall contests along with SWAC championships due to continuing concerns related to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The fall sports impacted include men’s and women’s cross country, football, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball. The conference has started the process of formalizing plans to conduct a competitive schedule for the fall sports during the 2021 spring semester.
Specifically, in the sport of football the plan includes a seven-game conference schedule beginning with an eight-week training period in January 2021. Each member institution will play a total of six conference games (four divisional/two non-divisional) with the option to play one non-conference game.
As a result of the SWAC’s decision, Southern Miss will lose its scheduled game against Jackson State on Sept. 19. In the previous meeting between the two teams in 2018, the game attracted a crowd of 29,176.
On Monday, Southern Miss’ Director of Athletics released a statement in regards to the impact of the SWAC’s decision.
“We were recently made aware of the SWAC’s decisions to cancel all athletic compete for the fall,” the statement read. “This obviously impacts several of our sports, including our Sept. 19 home football contest against Jackson State. We have been in discussions with several programs are working towards filling that date at The Rock with another game. As we all know, the situation surround COVID-19 is ever-changing, and we will continue to adjust accordingly.”
Dozens of teams have had to cancel games on Sept. 19 as a result of the SWAC’s decision and due to the Big Ten and Pac-12 choosing to only play conference games for the 2020-2021 season.
As of now notable local regional teams with open dates include Appalachian State, Arkansas State and North Carolina.
