NCAA calls off championships for Division III winter sports

There will be no winter championships for the NCAA’s Division III level for the 2020-21 school year. The association made the official announcement on Thursday.

The NCAA cited low participation numbers behind the decision to call off winter championships this year. Nine sports will be affected by the decision, including:

• Men’s and women’s basketball
• Men’s and women’s swimming and diving
• Men’s and women’s indoor track and field
• Men’s and women’s ice hockey
• Wrestling

From the NCAA’s website:

“Today, we made the difficult decision to cancel our Division III winter championships. While some institutions have been able to safely return to sport, the recent declaration form data show that more than half of our division has not returned to winter sport practice and competition to be in a position for NCAA national championship participation,” said Fayneese Miller, chair of the Presidents Council and president at Hamline. “This was a very difficult decision to make, and we are saddened to do so. However, none of our winter sports meet the Championships Committee’s established thresholds of participation to hold a championship. We are committed to ensuring that our student-athletes have the best possible experience, and, for us, this means having a meaningful number of competitions. We hope this is possible for our spring championship.”

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect college athletics, especially at the lower levels.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB