Bob Jones University Bruins Director of Athletics, Dr. Neal Ring, announced today that the fall sports teams would be postponing preseason activities with practices beginning after the start of the semester and the regular season beginning in September. Plans for winter and spring sports will be announced at a later date.
"Dr. Pettit and I are committed to competing this fall," Ring said. "However, the health and safety of our players, coaches, staff, and campus community are of utmost importance. We feel that this postponement will allow our student-athletes to return to campus and get acclimated to the new routines and expectations. This also gives us additional time to see how the landscape of collegiate sports will continue to develop around the country in the coming months."
In recent weeks, numerous conferences in the NCAA and NAIA have announced the postponement of fall sports with the possibility of moving those seasons to the spring. Other conferences and organizations have yet to announce plans, but with the recent uptick in COVID cases, programs have had to reconsider their plans for fall sports.
"We are finalizing a plan that has been a work in progress from our COVID task force," Ring said. "This plan gathers recommendations from the NCAA, DHEC and other governing bodies to help ensure we have proper testing measures and procedures in place to be able to protect our student-athletes and staff."
BJU will enter provisional status as an NCAA DIII program this fall. The Bruins feature 12 varsity programs and over 175 student-athletes.
