The CIAA will not compete in basketball this season following a vote from the conference’s chancellors and presidents, citing growing concerns with COVID-19.
“Unfortunately, COVID-19 continues to challenge the conference’s ability to see a clear path to move forward collectively,” Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams said in a statement shared to the association’s official Twitter account.
CIAA Announces Updated Plans for Men’s and Women’s Basketball and Volleyball
— CIAA (@CIAAForLife) December 14, 2020
Read More: https://t.co/GpmFO2vhe1 pic.twitter.com/9HpUHefsOI
The commissioner says canceling the season will mean a huge financial hit for the organization.
“There will definitely be a financial hit,” McWilliams said. “Moving football, although it’s not the biggest impact, it has a revenue impact on campuses with rivalry games and things like that. And with basketball the tournament (revenue) helps fund our other championships, but the great thing is in May when we built our budgets we did so with a worst-case scenario.”
WSSU chancellor Dr. Elwood Robinson said his fellow presidents and chancellors did not take the decision to cancel the season lightly, adding that every angle was examined.
“The CIAA is such a great conference because of our footprint in the multiple states,” Robinson said. “And each state is dealing with it differently and we wanted to equitable across the conference because it’s not bigger than an individual school or a collective number of schools. This decision was made in the best interest of the conference as a whole.”
#StudentAthleteSpotlight 🔦Sponsored by @Academy
— CIAA (@CIAAForLife) December 15, 2020
Meet @LUL1onsAthletic Deaquan Williams‼️WIlliams is a senior men's basketball student-athlete from Camden, NJ. He is a human services major that maintains a 3.3 grade point average.
🔗: https://t.co/syF9WtbdZ4 pic.twitter.com/YqR58DJY3y
“This was not an easy decision or one that was taken lightly by the CIAA Board, Virginia State President and CIAA Board Chair Makola Abdullah said in a statement. “We all want to have a season, and we want our student-athletes, coaches and staff to have a season. However, the data, which changes almost daily, does not support such a decision. The potential risk outweighs the desire to play.”
With 1️⃣1️⃣ days left until Christmas🎄, we celebrate @vuusports 1982-83 WBB team led by Coach Louis Hearn.
— CIAA (@CIAAForLife) December 15, 2020
27-2 record 🏀
1️⃣st CIAA WBB team
2️⃣nd to win the NCAA Championship EVER.
2020 CIAA Hall of Fame Inductees 🏆
Need we say more?
//sponsored by @HerculesTires pic.twitter.com/oXTypXa3jj
Scheduled non-conference games can still play up to Jan. 9 if they are booked or in contract, but no games are to be played by any CIAA schools after that date.