The mid-major Division I conference will push its swimming & diving championships to the spring, while canceling its 2021 Indoor Track & Field Championships. The MAAC said it saw no viable option but to cancel the track event, because pushing it to the spring would have conflicted with both the cross country championships (postponed from the fall season to March) and the outdoor track & field championships.
Swimming, though, will go on. The conference said its decision to postpone the meet was made in large part to give athletes the opportunity to properly train. The MAAC hasn’t given an official date yet, but clarified that the swim meet would be pushed to the spring season.
“The sport committee will study competition models for April dates while awaiting further guidance on venue restrictions that arise from the pandemic and state and local health regulations,” the conference’s press release says.
The MAAC joins several other mid-major conferences to postpone its swimming & diving championships. The Mid-American Conference (MAC) pushed its championships back to April. The Missouri Valley Conference has made a similar move – it sponsors a women’s swimming & diving championships only. The Big East has also pushed its swimming & diving championships to April.
The NCAA women’s and men’s championships are still set for March, so the current format would have the conference championships for these three conferences happening after the national championships. But that’s all still pending any other schedule changes amid the still-ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
So far, no indications of Power 5s considering this. Most of the conferences that have done this are conferences that don’t often send swimmers to NCAAs.
Seems like the NCAA should be looking to move its championship locations to outdoor pools.
I believe the Big East Conference Champs and the Northeast Conference Champs are both in April as well.