The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference announced Monday that it will not allow athletes, including basketball players, on campus for offseason conditioning workouts in June or July, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Canisius College and Niagara University are members of the MAAC, which is made up of 11 colleges in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
The MAAC also announced there will be a common start date for nonconference and conference contests for fall sports. Dates will be determined after state regulators in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey complete their phase-in schedules to reopen operations, the league said in a news release.
The MAAC Council of Presidents will meet June 26 to review recommendations for the resumption of fall sports, including dates for games to begin, and to review on-campus and MAAC championships policies, protocols and procedures.
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Neither Canisius nor Niagara has allowed students to return to campus since both schools moved to online learning in March. Canisius athletic director Bill Maher told The News last week that the college is focused on returning students to campus on Aug. 31, and is still determining when student-athletes can return to campus.
"The presidents (in the MAAC) are very concerned about public health and a proper opening," Maher said.
Niagara athletic director Simon Gray said decisions for returning student-athletes to campus will also be based on state mandates and best practices from medical and public health experts.
"We need to make proper decisions and that requires deliberate intention," Gray said.
The MAAC also announced a series of cost-containment measures for the 2020-21 school year. The conference will reduce its conference baseball series from three days to two (doubleheader and single game), and championships in soccer, softball, baseball and women's lacrosse will shrink from six-team formats to four-team formats.
The MAAC will reduce its operating budget by 20%, and will eliminate six full-time employees and three graduate fellows from its staff. MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor agreed to a 5% reduction in his salary line and all other salaries were frozen at 2019-20 levels.
The conference will have a "dues holiday" for the 2020-21 academic year, which saves each member school $65,000, and paid off mortgage notes on the MAAC office building in Edison, N.J., which provides nine member schools additional cash for their operations.
