#Ivy League eyes seven-game spring football season in lieu of fall sports

The Ivy League was the first Division I conference to cancel its postseason basketball tournament due to coronavirus in March and now it may be the first one to move football to the spring as well.

The conference on Wednesday released a statement that a decision on fall sports will be made in a week, but indications are they will not be held in the fall and a seven-game football season of conference-only games will be played in the spring, multiple sources told The Post. Ivy League presidents met on Tuesday and are still figuring out their academic calendars, a source said. The conference has petitioned the NCAA to move football to the spring, according to sources.

TMG Sports reported that the league was considering two options: playing the season in the spring and a conference-only seven-game season in the fall beginning in late September. It traditionally plays a 10-game schedule.

“I just can’t imagine the Ivy League playing sports in the fall,” one source said. “They have already proven when they canceled the conference basketball tournament that they do not mind being the first ones to make a move.”

The sources said a final decision has not been made, but it would be an upset if football was played in the fall considering the state of the country amid the pandemic and all the positive cases that have been reported at power five programs since they began having student-athletes on campus in early June for voluntary workouts. Talk has picked up of late of moving college football to the spring. Big-name programs LSU and Clemson announced over 30 positive tests of players. Arizona, Boise State, Houston and Kansas State paused workouts due to outbreaks.

Since the Ivy League doesn’t vie for the College Football Playoff, it can play its season at a different time from the rest of the country. It also doesn’t hold summer workouts like most other Division I programs.

“It’s common sense,” a second source said, referring to the Ivy League’s options. “That’s what everybody keeps saying: it’s going to be moved to the spring.”