UAA cancels winter sports, but Carnegie Mellon will pursue out-of-conference schedule

Despite a resolution from the University Athletic Association Presidents Council to cancel all winter sports, Carnegie Mellon plans to pursue playing a nonconference schedule.

“The UAA resolution applies to formal UAA competition only, and Carnegie Mellon will continue to pursue competitive opportunities for all sports during the spring semester,” athletic director Josh Centor wrote in an e-mail to CMU student-athletes.

“Our Return to Play Task Force, coaching staff and administrative leadership team continue to meet regularly to monitor the landscape, discuss procedures and develop plans for intercollegiate competition. There are still hurdles to clear, but we are working as hard as we can to get you back on the fields of play.”

The resolution affects only the 2020-21 winter sports of basketball, swimming and diving, indoor track and field and wrestling.

CMU is one of eight schools that form the UAA, along with Brandeis, Case Western Reserve, Emory, New York University, Rochester, Chicago and Washington in St. Louis.

UAA committees met on a regular basis over the past few months to consider how winter sports might take place amid the covid-19 pandemic continues, and found that “a substantial number of issues” involving NCAA testing protocols and restrictions presented challenges that were unacceptable.

The UAA allowed its member schools to determine which games they could keep scheduled.

“I am grateful to the athletics directors from across the UAA’s eight member schools and UAA Executive Vice President Dick Rasmussen for their commitment and dedication over the past several months to consider how best to support our scholar-athletes,” said Farnam Jahanian, President of Carnegie Mellon University and Chair of the UAA Presidents Council.

“Our athletics programs bring such vitality and school spirit to our communities. While it is very disappointing to contemplate another season without UAA competition, our commitment to student health and safety is at odds with a conference schedule that would require travel at significant distances. We look forward to a return to play within the UAA as soon as we can, and I am confident that we will be stronger than ever when we can once again compete.”