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Tuesday, the NAIA announced that volleyball and other fall sports will have their postseason championships postponed until spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Frontier Conference has not decided if volleyball, and other fall sports will still have their regular seasons this fall, or moved to the spring.
The landscape of college athletics is ever-changing amid the coronavirus pandemic. And the NAIA, the Frontier Conference, and Montana State University-Northern is changing with it.
Tuesday, the NAIA announced that it has moved all but its football postseason championships to the spring semester. The sports moved include volleyball, cross country and men's women's soccer. Northern offers volleyball and cross country.
"Given the fast-paced and constantly changing nature of the current environment, the COP recognized that the likelihood of safely completing the fall sports season has decreased significantly," said Dr. Arvid Johnson, COP Chair and University of St. Francis president. "This decision allows conferences to consider the regional impact of COVID-19 when determining the appropriate time for regular season competition."
Prior to the COP's vote, 51 NAIA individual institutions had already opted to postpone fall competition until spring 2021.
In March 2020, the NAIA canceled the spring 2020 sport season due to gathering restrictions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. Consequently, no spring 2020 athlete was charged a season of competition.
The statement also said that, NAIA schools and conferences can compete in these sports as scheduled in the fall, just that, there would be no postseason until next spring.
MSU-Northern Athletic Director Christian Oberquell told the Havre Daily News Wednesday that a decision whether or not to move volleyball to the spring in the Frontier may not come until after the NAIA announces specific dates for the fall postseason championships that have been moved to the spring.
Football was also mentioned in the statement, but an announcement on the NAIA national championship was held back. Football is being evaluated presently at all levels including the NAIA. The Frontier Conference' Montana schools are trying to move forward with a fall schedule, but a change to the NAIA championship could alter that plan.
The three football only schools, Eastern Oregon, College of Idaho and Southern Oregon all are part of the Cascade Collegiate Conference' decision to move all fall sports to the spring, so those three schools will not play Frontier football if the league plays out its season in the fall.
As for the what will happen specifically with football, Oberquell said a decision could come by the end of the week. The Frontier Council of Presidents pushed up their meeting this week so they could have a plan in place when the NAIA COP meets Friday to specifically decide on the fate of the NAIA football postseason.
If the Frontier does move forward with a fall season, the schedule will have to be redone again, given the loss of SOU, EOU and C of I. Under the NAIA's return to play plan announced in June, football can begin practicing Aug. 14, with the first games allowed Sept. 12.
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