In a statement released on Tuesday, December 1, the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) announced the cancellation of the remainder of the 2020/2021 sporting events for all fall and winter sports due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Los Angeles-based Division 3 conference said that the decision was made “in accordance with public health guidance and safety standards, as well as NCAA Resocialization recommendations.” Those recommendations provided by the NCAA, released in July and updated in August, can be found here.
- Read the full statement from the SCIAC here.
The conference also released the statement via Instagram;
The conference has 9 current members in southern California:
- California Institute of Technology
- California Lutheran University
- Chapman University
- Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
- University of La Verne
- Occidental College
- Pomona-Pitzer
- University of Redlands
- Whittier College
The decision impacts men’s and women’s swimming & diving, water polo, soccer, football, volleyball, cross country, and basketball. Each of the sports’ conference championships, along with all other scheduled competitions this year. In the statement, however, the conference specifies that any school that wishes to engage in training and competing on their own accord is permitted to do so.
Among those conference championship events that will be canceled are both the women’s and men’s 2021 SCIAC Swimming & Diving Championships which Caltech was set to host from February 18-21, 2021.
The conference is spread out over 4 countries in southern California including Los Angeles County, Ventura County, Orange County, and San Bernadino County. Of those, Los Angeles County has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases to date at 401k.
COVID-19 Cases by County as at December 1, 2020
| Los Angeles County | San Bernadino County | Orange County | Ventura County | |
| Total Cases | 408,980 | 93,671 | 78,553 | 20,066 |
| Population | 10,039,107 | 2,180,085 | 3,175,692 | 846,006 |
COVID-19 case data via LA Times, Population data via 2019 U.S Census
The announcement comes after Los Angeles County announced new restrictions amid rising coronavirus cases that includes limiting outdoor pools that serve more than one household to lap swimming with one person per lane.
Of the potential for sport to resume in the coming months, the SCIAC included the following:
“The SCIAC and its members remain committed to exploring meaningful competitive conference experiences for spring sport student-athletes later in the spring semester. As the pandemic evolves, the SCIAC will continue to monitor changing federal, state, and local guidance, and will continue to consult with each other as well as public health authorities. The health and well-being of all constituents involved has been, and will continue to be, the driving force behind our individual and collective decisions during this challenging time.”
Avalanche expected in CA due to the incredible number of snowflakes.
Try to be more intelligent
I’ve generally been supportive of taking very protective measures but I think this is pretty extreme. All the pools are outdoors. Let the schools decide if/how they can train safely w small group sizes, testing, etc. Why cancel at the conference level?
Check out D3 Playbook for the most updated list, but most D3 conferences have cancelled winter conference championships… the SCIAC is over a month later to this than some. And, maybe more relevantly, given LA county’s current rules, a number of these schools are unlikely to have students back on campus…tough to race if you can’t train your team! It is an unfortunate current reality
Lol
Orange county outperforming LA county, covid per capita.
Is DIII nationals for sure not going to have enough participants to happen? Very sad to see this happen but unfortunately does not look like any major competition for any DIII teams this year.
It’s not for sure, for sure, but I suspect we’re getting very close to the 50% mark. The NCAA says that if 50% of teams don’t participate in the season, there won’t be a championship.
Look if i can just get to be on campus in the spring instead of online schooling from my bedroom I’ll be thrilled. Winning nationals can wait until 2022