Lenoir-Rhyne will not play a 2020 football
season; league expects to resume in spring 2021
By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
ROCK HILL, S.C. – The South Atlantic Conference (SAC) announced Friday it will not play fall sports.
In a press release, league officials said the decision is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the conference will resume sports in the spring of 2021.
League officials said they will make a decision about winter sports at a later date.
The decision came after the NCAA Division II President’s Council cancelled fall championships earlier this week for football, men’s and women’s soccer and cross country and volleyball.
PATE
Kim Pate, vice president for athletics at Lenoir-Rhyne University, issued this statement:
“We are disappointed for our fall sport student-athletes who will not get the opportunity to compete in the NCAA Championships this year, yet are optimistic they will be able to participate in SAC competition this spring.
“These are difficult decisions for all involved, but the safety, health, and well-being of our student-athletes must remain our top priority.
“We are blessed to have outstanding coaches who are committed to developing our student-athletes not only as players but as people, and I’m confident we will be ready and prepared to get back to competing this spring when the landscape with the pandemic has hopefully improved.”
As decisions were made regarding COVID-19 previously, LRU’s original football schedule had been trimmed.
The SAC decision delays the debut of Mike Jacobs as head football coach at LRU. He was hired on Dec. 22, 2019 from Notre Dame College (Ohio), where he had been head coach for four years (42-8 record).
LRU’s 2020-21 winter sports (men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women indoor track and field) remain unchanged at this time, Pate said.
For more on LRU sports, visit www.lrbears.com.
CONFERENCE PRESS RELEASE: https://lrbears.com/documents/2020/8/7//SAC_Postpones_Fall_Sports_Aug_2020.pdf?id=1622
SOUTH ATLANTIC CONFERENCE SCHOOLS: https://www.thesac.com/members/membermap
SAC 2020 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE: https://www.thesac.com/sports/fball/2020-21/schedule
