The National Junior College Athletic Association announced Monday that it will be moving most of its fall sports to the spring of 2021.
Sports included are football, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball, while winter sports will begin in January rather than the regularly scheduled late-fall dates.
Cross country and half marathon teams will be allowed to compete in the fall.
Despite the NJCAA’s decision, the Mississippi Association of Community Junior Colleges chose to abstain from the vote. Member schools of the MACC will hold their own vote to decide if the conference will play its sports in the fall and not participate with other NJCAA schools or move its fall sports to the spring.
“What we wanted to do was wait and make decisions based on what’s good for public health but try our best to stay in line with high school and NCAA schools and what they were going to try and do,” Pearl River Community College Athletic Director Jeff Long said. “We just requested more time as a conference to make a decision. They are moving forward with moving all the sports to the spring. They did let us know they would work with us with eligibility and those parameters if we did choose to play a season in fall.”
If the MACC votes to play in the fall instead of the spring, then none of its fall sports programs will be allowed to compete for a national championship. Notably, the MACC has won seven of the last nine football national championships.
For PRCC football coach Seth Smith, one of his main worries is how it will alter player recruitment if the season is moved to the spring. Football teams will be allowed to hold three scrimmages and hold practices in the fall.
“Honestly, kids go to junior college to try and better themselves for a chance to play for a university,” Smith said. “If we play in the spring, the first thing I thought was that we were at a disadvantage from a recruiting standpoint.
“What would get tricky is that some would leave in December and rightfully so, because that’s what they work for, but if you have guys leave, then you would have to fill your roster with kids from January. It’s a unique time. I don’t think there is a perfect way to do it, obviously. We just want to play. Whether we play in the fall or in the spring, we will do everything we can to make sure that our sophomores get promoted.”
The junior college presidents from each of the 15 MACC schools will vote on the conference’s final decision on July 27.
“We feel that we have always been a solid member of the NJCAA, Long said. “We certainly know these are unprecedented times, and we are just trying to make the best decision for our students.”
Photo by JUCO Weekly.
