College Sports

Plans for the college football season — if it is played — should start coming into focus this week. They will trickle down from the top of major college football, with Power Five conferences putting in place revised schedules they hope will make it easier to manage potential disruptions brought on by COVID-19.

The NBA has its Disney World bubble. The NHL will have two bubbles, in Toronto and Edmonton.

Arkansas State's opener at Memphis on Sept. 5. was still on the schedule as of Tuesday. That much athletic director Terry Mohajir knows. Mohajir has no idea who the Red Wolves will play the following week or the week after that. "I wish I could tell you something concrete," he said, echoing his counterparts at schools across the country.

Men's and women's college basketball coaches are proposing the NCAA eliminate standardized testing requirements from initial-eligibility standards, calling exams such as the SAT and ACT "longstanding forces of institutional racism."

Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird know that they are on the tail end of their basketball careers. After missing last season due to injuries, they had to make a decision about playing this year in a short WNBA season in Florida that was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. But both say skipping the 2020 season could have meant the end of their playing days because it would have been difficult to return after two years off.

The Yavapai College Athletic Department announced on Tuesday that it will reschedule its men’s soccer and women’s volleyball programs’ seasons from the fall to the spring 2021 semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) on Monday voted to move all of its member schools’ close-contact fall sports seasons to either the winter or the spring, which impacts Yavapai College in Prescott.

The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) announced on Friday, July 10, that its Presidential Advisory Council has recommended that a majority of sporting competitions be moved to the spring semester of 2021 due to growing concerns regarding the coronavirus.

The Pac-12 has become the second major conference to shift to a conference-only fall schedule amid growing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

The NJCAA announced its 2019-20 Academic Teams of the Year on Thursday and all four Yavapai sports teams were included on the list.

The Big Ten Conference announced Thursday it will not play nonconference games in football and several other sports this fall, the most dramatic move yet by a power conference because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Ivy League on Wednesday became the first Division I conference to say it will not play sports this fall because of the coronavirus pandemic, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press. The league left open the possibility of moving some seasons to the spring if the outbreak is better controlled by then.

Coastal Carolina already had one of the smaller athletic budgets in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and that was before a 15% spending cut was ordered because of projected declines in state funding and student fees stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.

All 10 presidents from each of the colleges that make up the Maricopa County Community Colleges District (MCCCD) have collectively forwarded a recommendation to district Chancellor Steven Gonzales to cancel all sports for the 2020-21 school year.

The University of Florida is ending its "gator bait" cheer at football games and other sports events because of its racial connotations, the school's president announced Thursday in a letter making several other similar changes on campus.

College football is scheduled to kick off in less than three months and there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful that games will be played Labor Day weekend.

Sean Miller has reeled in some of nation's best recruiting classes during his 11-year stint at Arizona, players who starred in college, won multiple NCAA Tournament games, went on to the NBA.

While the Yavapai College sports teams have been dormant since March, the improvements to the facilities are moving forward as Roughrider Park installed new stadium seats in its stands.

Four-year colleges facing budget shortfalls stemming from the pandemic are approaching an unwelcome milestone: In coming days, the number of eliminated sports programs will almost surely pass 100.

The Pac-12 Conference will allow voluntary workouts on campus for all sports beginning June 15, subject to the decision of each individual school and where allowed by local and state guidelines, the conference announced Tuesday.

The Yavapai Athletics Department has announced that Adidas, a global leader in the sporting goods industry, will be its official uniform apparel and footwear supplier starting on July 1.

Alabama and Arizona have agreed to a home-and-home football series in 2032 and 2033.

The NCAA Division I Council voted Wednesday to lift a moratorium on voluntary workouts by football and basketball players effective June 1 as a growing number of college leaders expressed confidence that fall sports will be possible in some form despite concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

Arizona State clawed its way through last season, putting itself in position for a third straight NCAA Tournament before the coronavirus pandemic canceled everything.

Five of the 12 schools in the Pac-12 expect to reopen their campuses this fall, a key step to the return of college sports.