{"id":163203,"date":"2020-08-05T11:06:42","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T15:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=163203"},"modified":"2020-08-05T11:06:42","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T15:06:42","slug":"uconn-football-announces-cancellation-fall-2020-season-response-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/08\/uconn-football-announces-cancellation-fall-2020-season-response-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Football Announces Cancellation of Fall 2020 Season in Response to Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Connecticut Department of Athletics today announced that its football program will cancel all competition for the 2020-21 school year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter receiving guidance from state and public health officials and consulting with football student-athletes, we\u2019ve decided that we will not compete on the gridiron this season,\u201d director of athletics David Benedict said.\u00a0\u201cThe safety challenges created by COVID-19 place our football student-athletes at an unacceptable level of risk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Members of the team will remain enrolled in classes, either virtually or in person, as full-time students at UConn.\u00a0 The team members will also retain access to facilities and support services in accordance with NCAA rules, ensuring that student-athletes remain on track academically and developmentally.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the Huskies began spring practice on February 4 and were one of the only teams in the country to complete a full spring schedule, the opportunities to condition and train as a team have been limited in recent months.\u00a0 The team has been on campus since early July with zero student-athletes testing positive for COVID-19.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This season\u2019s games against Illinois, Indiana, Maine and Mississippi have already been taken off the schedule by those schools\u2019 respective conferences and uncertainty surrounded the contests against North Carolina and Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe necessary measures needed to mitigate risk of football student-athletes contracting the coronavirus are not conducive to delivering an optimal experience for our team,\u201d Benedict said.\u00a0\u201cUltimately, the student-athletes would rather preserve their year of eligibility with an eye to competing under more typical circumstances during the 2021 season.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Head football coach Randy Edsall concurred. \u201cWe engaged and listened to the concerns of our football student-athletes and feel this is the best decision for their health, safety, and well-being,\u201d Edsall said.\u00a0 \u201cOur team is united in this approach and we will use this time to further player development within the program and gear ourselves to the 2021 season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The football student-athletes offered their thoughts in a statement.\u00a0 \u201cAs a team we are in full support of the decision to not compete in 2020.\u00a0 We have many health concerns and not enough is known about the potential long term effects of contracting COVID-19. Additionally, we have not had the optimal time to train mentally & physically to be properly prepared to compete this season.\u00a0 We love this game and love competing.\u00a0 We came to campus in the beginning of July knowing there would be challenges presented by the pandemic but it is apparent to us now that these challenges are impossible to overcome.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am supportive of this decision and know that it was made in conjunction with and in the best interest of our football student-athletes, University President Thomas Katsouleas said.\u00a0 \u201cThese young men love competing for UConn and our fans love cheering for them on Saturdays.\u00a0 But the associated health risks are too much to overcome and I agree this is the best course of action.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

UConn Athletics will be reaching out to season ticket holders and supporters in the coming days to further explain options and provide individualized solutions as needed including full refunds when requested.\u00a0 <\/span>Regarding the status of other fall sports, UConn will continue to work with the BIG EAST to chart the best path forward.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAmong all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic for the last several months, our top priority has clearly been and will always be ensuring the health and well-being of our student-athletes, staff and fans,\u201d Benedict continued.\u00a0 \u201cWith that in mind, we concluded that this action was necessary.\u00a0 Obviously, there are details that need to be addressed but safety was foremost on our minds when making this decision and we know our fans share that same commitment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn Athletics has cancelled all its games for the Fall 2020 season, citing ongoing public health concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":145124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1712,2213,173,92,174,2225,90],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-163203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-coronavirus","category-uconn-avery-point","category-uconn-hartford","category-uconn-stamford","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-waterbury"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 08:50:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163204,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163203\/revisions\/163204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/145124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163203"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=163203"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=163203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}