The last fall without football at the University of Delaware was 1945, when so many UD students were still involved in World War II duty.
The country’s losing battle against the coronavirus will prevent Delaware from playing football again in 2020.
In fact, there will be no Blue Hen sports at all.
“It hurts, it's painful and it's emotional but as you take a step back, it's clearly the right thing to do," Delaware football coach Danny Rocco said.
The Colonial Athletic Association, of which Delaware is a member, announced Friday it was suspending league football competition “due to continuing concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The CAA is hopeful of playing a conference football schedule in the spring.
"We just want to get back on the field," Delaware quarterback Nolan Henderson said. "We don't care if it's winter and negative-10 degrees."
However, the CAA, citing the league’s vast football geography stretching from Maine to North Carolina and the fluid nature of the COVID-19 crisis, did give schools permission to play an independent football schedule in the fall if they choose.
Only James Madison and Elon are, according to reports, planning to do that, though each could change its mind, even after benefiting from a few practices.
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In the wake of the CAA’s football decision, Delaware announced Friday all fall sports would be suspended.
UD Athletic Director Chrissi Rawak called Friday "not an easy day for us, although I am certain in my heart and in my head that it's right."
There was really no other option, she added, while taking into account "the health and safety of our people and our campus and our community and the mitigation of risk."
The CAA, however, did not announce a league-wide postponement of fall sports because of, The News Journal has learned, robust disagreement among school leaders.
A conference statement cited the CAA’s 10 “distinctive institutions” spread over eight states that each possess a “commitment to the health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes, campuses, and communities” while recognizing “the unique circumstances of each of our campuses and communities to make decisions that are best for them.”
League members Hofstra, Drexel, Towson and William & Mary did join Delaware in calling off all fall sports.
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Delaware’s other traditional fall sports – men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, women’s cross country and field hockey – will also go silent. The UD field hockey team, an NCAA qualifier six of the last seven years and NCAA champion in 2016, sees its title dreams dashed before its first preseason practice.
As for moving those sports to next spring, Rawak said, "We will be relentless in our efforts to identify a competitive season, ideally in the spring," adding that CAA schools will begin schedule discussions next week.
But other teams are also impacted, as spring sports such as rowing, tennis and golf have fall competition, too.
What type of practice situations will be permitted isn't yet clear.
If fall athletes cannot play next spring their eligibility may be retained but that will be an NCAA decision, as was the case with 2020 spring athletes.
No decision has been made yet regarding basketball season and other winter sports, according to the CAA.
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The University of Delaware is near the geographic center of the 10-member CAA, which stretches from Northeastern in Boston to the College of Charleston (S.C.).
In between are Hofstra on Long Island, Drexel in Philadelphia, Towson outside Baltimore, Virginia members William & Mary and James Madison, and North Carolina’s Elon and UNC-Wilmington.
In football, however, the CAA is a 12-team assortment of schools whose actual full-time membership is in four different leagues – the CAA (Delaware, JMU, Elon, William & Mary and Towson); America East (Maine, New Hampshire, Stony Brook and Albany); Atlantic 10 (Richmond and Rhode Island); and Big East (Villanova).
On Friday, the A-10 and America East announced there would be no fall sports in their leagues.
Delaware had faced a daunting yet welcomed challenge in its Sept. 5 football opener at defending CAA champion and NCAA runner-up James Madison.
That and 10 other football games have now been erased, including a Sept. 19 home opener against Long Island University at Delaware Stadium, where the new Whitney Athletic Center and other renovations are nearly complete, and a first-ever Sept. 26 trip to the ACC’s North Carolina State.
"I'm thankful that Coach Rocco and Chrissi and President [Dennis] Assanis made the right decisions to keep our health as the top priority," said Kedrick Whitehead, the UD safety out of Middletown High.
The CAA’s decision follows similar moves by NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) counterparts the Ivy League last week, the Patriot League Monday and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Wednesday.
Those three leagues were united and shelved all fall sports, however. The MEAC includes Delaware State, which was scheduled to be Delaware’s final regular-season football foe Nov. 21 in Newark.
The state of the 2020 FCS playoffs remains in limbo, pending the decision of other leagues.
Among Delaware’s four-year schools, only Wesley College in Dover has not had its fall sports seasons stopped. Division III Wesley competes in the New Jersey Athletic Conference in football and the Atlantic East in other sports.
The Division II Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, which includes Wilmington University and Goldey-Beacom College, nixed all competition until Jan. 1 due to coronavirus safety precautions on Monday.
College sports have been quiet since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in mid-March, with schools closing, students being sent home and the NCAA basketball tournaments and spring sports cancelled.
In June, the CAA announced schools were not required to play league opponents in the regular season in field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, softball, baseball and men’s and women’s lacrosse. Later, the league announced all schools would qualify for postseason CAA championships, instead of just the top place-finishers.
Delaware’s fall sports coaches had been busy putting together smaller, more regional, schedules. Now, they will not need those, at least not in the coming months.
There will certainly be an economic impact as well, as football crowds have long been among UD's primary sources of athletic income.
Delaware football had $8.3 million in revenue but also $7.8 million in expenses in 2018-19, according to the U.S. Department of Education's Equity in Athletics data. The $8.3 million is roughly 20 percent of UD athletic revenue.
Among the additional expenses potentially incurred from moving fall sports to spring is extending the school year of those players who were expecting to graduate after the fall semester.
"We can't really control when we're gonna play but we can just work really hard and use it as an opportunity to get better," said Henderson, the Smyrna High grad.
Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.
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