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Paths to NCAA Tournaments for MEC squads will look different this March

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — During the first weekend of March, The Mountain East Conference concluded their annual conference basketball tournament in Wheeling and five league teams qualified for NCAA Tournament play. Days later, sports across the nation came to a screeching halt due to the spread of COVID. NCAA Tournaments at all levels were canceled.

Ten months later, MEC squads finally returned to the courts as winter sports opened Thursday.

“The last eight-and-a-half months has been the most challenging eight-and-a-half months of my career. Everyday we were trying to figure out how to hit a consistently moving target. Every time we looked like we were getting closer to where we could safely return, circumstances would change,” said MEC Comissioner Reid Amos.

“Our twelve members, from the beginning, were in it together. How much that matters to be able to get to this day, I don’t know that I can effectively explain.”

16 of the 23 NCAA Division II conferences will be competing in winter sports. COVID testing will be a key requirement for student-athletes and coaches throughout the season. The MEC will be complying with state protocols in West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio.

“It took us seven-and-a-half months to get to a point where we could access the testing supplies that we needed just to be able to test our student-athletes with rapid tests and to be able to safely return to competition. It is very different for us than the Division I level.”

League basketball teams will play a 16-game schedule comprised of only conference opponents. No fans will be allowed in arenas for the start of basketball seasons. That policy will be reevaluated On January 19.

NCAA basketball tournaments are expected to be played with smaller fields from 64 teams to 48 teams. The MEC is in the NCAA Atlantic Region and competes against the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association for NCAA tournament spots. The PSAC and the CIAA opted not to compete this winter, so some temporary regional realignment is likely.

“We are looking at options to reshuffle the deck, so to speak. It wouldn’t surprise me if we ended up instead of eight regions to have four regions and placing four conferences in four ‘temporary’ regions. At this point, that is just a projection because different options are being looked at.”

Four weeks ago, the MEC released a revised calendar for the remainder of the academic year. Fall sports will compete in compressed seasons during the second semester. Spring sports are expected to begin their seasons as scheduled.

MEC football teams will compete in a five-game regular season with the league split into two divisions. The division winners will compete for the conference championship in late-April.

“There’s no NCAA opportunity this year in Division II. But we want to give them the opportunity to have that experience, not lose an entire year and play for a conference championship. If we play roughly five weeks, that won’t be much longer than what they do in a spring season anyway. We felt that was about the appropriate amount of football to play during the spring, knowing that our hope is we will return to something that looks like normal in the fall.”