Over the summer, UMass Boston was given news that would impact the entire campus for the first semester. That was that we would be learning remotely and that all Fall semester sports would be cancelled. 

Now we are getting similar news as we all received an email informing us that classes would likely remain online for the spring semester here at UMass Boston. So what does that mean for sports? Will there continue to be no sports and burn the whole season for all sports, or will sports be brought back despite the remote learning? Ultimately that decision will be up to the Little East Conference then the school.

If sports were to return for the LEC, UMass Boston can choose whether they want their athletes to compete or not. This was put on display when the Big 10 was prepared to continue their football season, but the University of Michigan was holding out. The biggest reason Michigan ultimately brought back football was because fans and players all desperately tried to force the hand of the school to resume the season.

So will that happen at UMass Boston?

There is a small difference between a Division One school like Michigan and a Division Three school like UMass Boston. Players on the Michigan football team are planning on entering the NFL draft right away after the season. For UMass Boston athletes, they rely on their earlier years in college to prove that they belong to a Division One school where they can eventually compete for an opportunity to enter the draft at some point no matter what sport it may be for.

Ultimately, if there are no further developments on a vaccine by the Spring semester, I fully expect that there will not be any sports in the Spring semester. I think that the LEC has too many teams within the areas of different cities in New England that they would deem it unsafe to continue to play until the Covid-19 cases decrease dramatically or until there is a vaccine.

If UMass Boston is the reason there are no sports in the Spring, like the University of Michigan, I fully expect players to fight for their season. The NCAA has made it known that if athletes cannot play or if athletes opt out of the season due to Covid-19 that those athletes will maintain their scholarships through this team. For Division One athletes who already know that they are getting drafted, they may opt out just for their physical health. However, for some Division Three athletes who want to prove themselves, they need to play as soon as possible, so opting out may be out of the cards for some Division Three athletes.

At the end of the day, it is hard to see sports being played in the Spring of 2021 at UMass Boston. However, the Spring semester is still a few months away and it is possible that we see some developments on Covid-19 by then. If they do decide to play sports in the Spring, there are a lot of different examples being set by other colleges on how to pull it off. It would be great to see a return to sports at UMass Boston in the Spring, but at this point all we could do is hope.