North Coast Athletic Conference suspends athletics through December

Another area college conference won’t play sports in the fall.

The North Coast Athletic Conference announced Wednesday, “with tremendous regret,” it is suspending athletics until the end of December.

The NCAC is an affiliate of NCAA Division III and features Allegheny College in Meadville as one of its members.

The D-II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference also said last week it will not play fall sports, instead opting to move the season to the spring while also delaying the start of winter sports.

“We recognize that this new decision is deeply disappointing to our student-athletes, coaches, and really, to every single one of us,” NCAC executive director Keri Alexander Luchowski said in a news release. “We worked hard for months to create safe ways for students to compete this fall, knowing how much this means to our students and to our campuses. … The health and safety of our campuses and communities must be our highest priority. Sadly, the continued increase in the pandemic in many areas means that we cannot safely proceed with the conference competition we had planned for.”

The NCAC plans to “explore all options for a safe return to intercollegiate competition this spring,” and “call on our campus and conference student-athlete advisory committees and our coaches to develop non-conventional ways for our student-athletes to engage in competitive opportunities this fall.”