Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine has canceled all fall and winter sports scheduled to take place during the fall semester. That includes the fall portion of the season for the men’s and women’s swimming & diving programs.
Bowdoin made the announcement this week as part of the school’s overall plan for the fall 2020 semester amid the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. The school will only bring back a limited number of students to campus, with the remainder of students continuing to take courses online, away from campus, for the fall semester of 2020.
First-year students and transfer students will return to campus for the fall semester, along with a very small number of senior honors students who need school facilities for their senior projects, and students whose living situation makes online learning nearly impossible. All other upperclassmen will remain away from campus and will take classes online for the fall semester.
You can read the full athletics announcement here. The school says it will not participate in fall or winter sports during the fall semester, though it hopes to have opportunities for sports to participate and compete “in some form” after January 1. Bowdoin competes in the NCAA’s Division III and in the NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference).
An athletics-specific Q&A says the school expects those student-athletes who are on campus to “have the opportunity to participate in individual and small group workouts with members of our coaching staff” but the fall semester will not include any competitions.
Bowdoin says that athletes in fall sports will not use a season of eligibility if their program doesn’t compete at all during the fall season. Swimming & diving falls in the winter season, meaning athletes could still potentially compete in the second half of the season, complicating the question of NCAA eligibility.
Glad to see Colby forging their own path!
Williams, another NESCAC school announced Monday that they will not have any athletic competition during fall semester. They will re-evaluate 2nd semester competition later in the fall. This obviously has huge effect on Swimming, limiting an already short (by conference rules) season. Could be start of a domino effect across NESCAC.
Ubears still rising!
UBears still rising
Flu season is over. There may still be outbreaks of the flu.
Covid season is over. There may still be outbreaks of covid.
Things may vary, nation to nation.
We are now tracking exactly where we would expect to for all cause deaths for several weeks now. All cause deaths were 25000 or so over average for a couple of weeks in early April.
Let’s get back to normal ASAP.
I’m so happy your opinions have absolutely no impact on public policy
You are the reason the curve isn’t flattening.
Pay that kind of money to sit at home on the computer?????
Lolololol
The end of the overpriced college education is upon us
FEAR is a liar.
Bowdoin’s first-year class will be unbelievably close-knit and will receive a ton of support from it’s faculty and staff. Social distancing will be easier to monitor.
The decision sucks if you’re a fall semester athlete (heartbreaking for seniors) but their winter sports teams could still have a meaningful experience if they are able to have an on-campus winter training camp. It would seem to me that a January trip to Florida or Puerto Rico etc is not in the cards.
If first-year swimmers can train with their coach and upper class swimmers do likewise with club teams wherever they live, they’ll all be fit and ready to go in early January. Ditto ice hockey and basketball and skiing.… Read more »