Junior colleges and NAIA cancel all sports competition through end of academic year
While the NCAA basketball tournaments were canceled, the national junior college tourneys had been postponed, with the NJCAA hoping to contest them in April.
The NJCAA announced Monday that all competition through the end of the school year is canceled, however.
“As an association, the NJCAA exhausted all possible avenues to potentially postpone competition for both upcoming basketball championships and spring sport competition,” NJCAA president and CEO Christopher Parker said in a release.
“We believe following the recommendations of the CDC is in the best interest of our member colleges and our student-athletes.”
The NJCAA said the cancellation includes all practices, regular season, postseason, and national championship play. Spring sports athletes will not be charged a year of participation. Recruiting is suspended until April 15.
The Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference had suspended all sporting events until at least April 1. Several of the conference’s basketball teams qualified for national tournaments that now won’t be played.
The men’s teams are Coffeyville, Colby, Cowley, who were to compete in the Division I tourney in Hutchinson, Kansas, and Kansas City Kansas Community College, which qualified for the Division II nationals in Danville, Illinois.
The women’s teams are Butler, Hutchinson and Seward County, who qualified for the Division I finals in Lubbock, Texas, and Labette, which qualified in Division II, which was to be played in Port Huron, Michigan.
Also Monday, the NAIA canceled its spring sports season. The organization canceled all winter sports championships Thursday, including the Division I men’s basketball championship in Kansas City, the oldest national hoops tourney in the country.
“All possible scenarios that would have supported a spring sports season were seriously considered by multiple NAIA governance groups,” NAIA president and CEO Jim Carr said in a release. “However, the growing state of emergency due to COVID-19, as well as the Center for Disease Control’s recommendation yesterday to limit gatherings to fewer than 50 people for eight weeks, meant we could not in good conscience move forward with the spring sports season and championships.”
The NAIA also said spring sports athletes won’t be charged for a season of competition.
On Tuesday, the MIAA, a NCAA Division II conference, announced the remainder of spring sports competition was canceled.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Junior colleges and NAIA cancel all sports competition through end of academic year."