NJCAA CANCELS ALL SPRING ATHLETIC SEASONS

All athletic seasons for Blinn College and other NJCAA institutions have come to an end.

The National Junior College Athletic Association has announced on their national website, their decision to cancel all upcoming spring competition, effectively immediately.

The NJCAA says it is acting on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in making—what they’re calling—a “very difficult decision”.

"In light of the progressive evolvement of the COVID-19 situation, the NJCAA has decided to end all competition for the remainder of the academic year," stated Dr. Christopher Parker, NJCAA President & CEO. "As an association, the NJCAA exhausted all possible avenues to potentially postpone competition for both upcoming basketball championships and spring sport competition. We believe following the recommendations of the CDC is in the best interest of our member colleges and our student-athletes."

Spring competition includes all practices, regular season, postseason, and national championship play.

For Blinn, this means the end of the seasons for Baseball, Softball, and Men’s and Women’s Golf.

Regarding eligibility for spring sports, the NJCAA says, “no spring sport student-athlete who was enrolled at a member college in 2020 will be charged a year of participation.”

Along with the cancellation of competition, all on and off-campus recruiting for all sports will be halted until April 15 with further evaluation to be assessed at that point in time.

The NJCAA will explore the opportunity to expand allowable Letters of Intent for spring sports for both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years under the recommendation of the NJCAA Eligibility Committee.

The NJCAA says it will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as more information becomes available.