Jul 8, 2020 - Sports

Ivy League pauses fall athletic programs amid pandemic

Jacob Knutson

University of Pennsylvania against Brown University in November 2019. Photo: Nicole Fridling/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Ivy League conference announced Wednesday it will cancel sports because of the coronavirus pandemic and will not reconsider resuming athletic programs until at least Jan. 1, 2021, the New York Times reports.

Why it matters: The conference — consisting of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Columbia and Brown — was the first to cancel its athletic programs this spring and is now the first Division I conference to call off football.

The big picture: Small colleges, such as such as Bowdoin, Williams and Morehouse, have similarly pulled back fall sports, while large universities have yet to announce their plans, according to Bloomberg and the NYT.

A number of sports, from football and basketball to cross country and sailing, are in limbo amid Wednesday's announcement.

Go deeper: Coronavirus forces college sports programs to slash budgets

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Ivy League pauses fall athletic programs amid pandemic

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