ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Valley Conference, which includes SDSU and USD in football, announced Friday that the conference season is being delayed until the spring. The Presidents Council also announced that schools can have competition in the fall at their own discretion.
The league’s intention is to have a full eight-game schedule in the spring, as a statement put it, “with the expectation to culminate the season with the FCS Playoffs.”
Those playoffs cannot happen this fall. There are 127 schools playing FCS football. By rule, at least 50 percent of them, or 64, must play a full season for there to be playoffs. However, several conferences, including the Missouri Valley, have announced postponements of football, to the point where many more than half the FCS schools will not play.
A statement from SDSU read, “Initial information regarding how South Dakota State University plans to proceed with the 2020-21 football season will be shared next week.”
Just before the conference announcement was made, USD conducted its first official practice. Athletic Director David Herbster said, “President (Sheila) Gestring and I met with our players this morning, and they stressed to us that competing for a national championship, playing in front of family, friends and fans, and having a safe environment to do so were of utmost importance. This is an unprecedented decision, and we certainly appreciate the patience of our players, coaches and fans, as we work through this process. This decision gives us options to consider for the fall, and the opportunity to prepare and plan for a spring championship season that will hopefully give as many fans as possible the ability to see the DakotaDome renovations and enjoy a Coyote football game safely.”
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