BC-Ohio Called Off After MAC Cancels Fall Sports
Just two days after the ACC released its revised 11-game schedule, the league calendar has already changed. Eying a potential spring season, the MAC canceled all fall sports on Saturday morning, eliminating three “plus one” games on the ACC schedule.
Boston College’s season opener against Ohio is off, as is Pittsburgh-Miami (Ohio) and Notre Dame-Western Michigan. All three games were slated to occur during the first two weeks of this year’s COVID-19 adjusted schedule.
The MAC, a 12-member league, is the first FBS conference to cancel its fall football season. This comes three days after UConn, an independent, became the first FBS program to opt out of the 2020 campaign.
“The Mid-American Conference has announced the postponement of all scheduled fall contests, as well as MAC championships, due to continuing concerns related to the COVID-19 global pandemic,” the conference statement reads.
“The Council of Presidents unanimously voted to take this action with the health and safety of its student-athletes, coaches and communities as its top priority. It is the intention of the membership to provide competitive opportunities for the student-athletes in these sports during the spring semester of 2021.”
When MAC presidents met on Thursday to solidify the league’s schedule model, Northern Illinois president Lisa Freeman reportedly notified the conference that the Huskies would not be playing this fall because of COVID-19 concerns, according to Stadium college football inside Brett McMurphy. Interestingly enough, prior to her time at NIU, Freeman served as a faculty member at Kansas State for 16 years, teaching pharmacology and research conduct courses.
After NIU—which has won four MAC championships in the last nine years—went out, the rest of the conference reevaluated its approach and ultimately decided to cancel the fall season on Saturday morning, per McMurphy.
Once the Power Five moved to conference-only and “plus one” schedule models, the MAC found itself in a financial pickle. The Big Ten’s announcement alone cost MAC schools a total of 11 games and, more importantly, a combined $10.5 million, according to McMurphy.
BC-Ohio was the only remaining non-conference game from the Eagles’ original 2020 schedule.
Following the Big Ten’s move to a conference-only schedule, BC’s matchup with Purdue was canceled. Then, the Patriot League called off fall sports, tabling the Eagles’ game against Holy Cross. And due to the ACC’s non-conference matchup restrictions—all out-of-conference contests have to be played in each ACC school’s home state—BC’s road game at Kansas was no longer an option for the fall.
BC’s matchup against Ohio was going to be the Eagles’ first outing against a MAC opponent since 2017, when the Eagles played both NIU and Central Michigan. BC has only faced Ohio once before, and that was way back in 1966. Bill Hess’ Bobcats got the best of the Eagles, 23-14, handing BC its second straight loss of what turned out to be a 4-6 season.
It’s back to the drawing board for BC, which has to find a new non-conference opponent for a fast approaching season opener. That is, if the ACC, and all of college football, gets there.