Source: Valdosta State University

VALDOSTA –The Gulf South Conference and Valdosta State University will postpone competition in basketball, football, soccer, and volleyball until at least January 1, 2021, according to a post on Valdosta State’s Blazer page. 

“I am disappointed that we are having to make this decision,” Valdosta State Director of Athletics Herb Reinhard said in the post. “I’m disappointed for our fall sport student-athletes, our coaches, our fans and supporters. The health and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches and staff is our absolute priority. The health concerns associated with our ‘high contact’ sports, coupled with the very significant challenges associated with meeting the NCAA’s mandatory testing guidelines, simply proved to be too high a hurdle for us to overcome in our efforts to compete this fall.”

VSU states that the three factors that led the board of directors to this decision are health and safety of student-athletes and campus communities, mandated participation protocols from the NCAA Board of Governors and the NCAA Division II Fall Championships cancellation.

Two VSU sports will be played this fall, however. Cross country and golf have been deemed “low contact risk” and “medium contact risk” sports and will be permitted during fall semester.

“We will consider opportunities for our fall sports to play outside competition in the spring,” Reinhard added. “Our fall sport student-athletes will retain their athletic aid and by not playing a full schedule in the spring they will also retain their year of eligibility.  We are excited that our cross country and golf teams will have the opportunity to compete this fall. We will now turn our attention to providing our student-athletes an opportunity to train this fall and we will start preparing for what we hope will be a spring full of Blazer Athletics.”