MAC Becomes First FBS Conference to Cancel Fall Football Season Due to COVID-19

The conference is the first in the FBS to call of its season due to the coronavirus

MAC coronavirus football
Miami RedHawks running back Jaylon Bester runs with the ball during the Mid-American Conference championship game against the Central Michigan Chippewas on December 7, 2019 at Ford Field.
Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

In a move that could prove an omen for the college football season, the Mid-American Conference has cancelled its football season for the fall, citing “continuing concerns” over the COVID-19 pandemic. With that move, the MAC is the first conference in the Football Bowl Subdivision — the top division in college football — to suspend its season, potentially signaling a change of plans across the board with regards to the pandemic.

As first reported by Stadium, the league decided early on Saturday in a vote of its presidents to postpone the season, after Northern Illinois University president Lisa Freeman informed the league that her school will not play this year. The MAC made it official on Saturday, tweeting out a statement confirming the postponement:

On top of the pandemic, the MAC was one of the conferences hardest hit financially by the pandemic, as the bigger conferences had announced that they would not play games out of conference this year, robbing MAC teams from lucrative games that were scheduled ahead of the spread of COVID-19. The news also follows the NCAA’s decision to cancel all Division II and III sports for the fall.

According to Stadium’s Brett McMurphy, a source has told him that they believe this will be the first domino in cancelling the entire college football season for the fall, with the MAC’s decision potentially opening the floodgates on postponements:

As of now, the other conferences in the FBS are committed to playing this fall, but with the MAC announcement on Saturday, it would not be surprising if the rest followed suit over the coming weeks.

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