The rift that emerged Tuesday as two of the Power Five football conferences said they would not play sports this fall and the other three planned to continue widened Wednesday as several other sports leagues joined the overwhelming majority that will keep players sidelined this fall.
The Big East Conference, which plays Division I sports except for football, said it had reached its decision not to play fall sports after an “exhaustive review” that revealed “many unknowns surrounding testing availability, turnaround time and travel restrictions in our 11 locales,” Commissioner Val Ackerman said. Ackerman said plans for men’s and women’s basketball — the league’s marquee sports — remain “unaffected.”
Several other leagues, including the Gulf South Conference, the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and the Big South Conference, said they would not play this fall. The Big South’s decision means that 10 of the 13 leagues that play in the Football Championship Series…
