MEAC releases spring football schedule. What’s it look like for NC Central?
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference will have a football season — in the spring.
The MEAC has released a football schedule that begins Feb. 20, 2021 and ends with the conference championship game on Saturday, April 17, it was announced Thursday. The league also released schedules in other sports including men’s and women’s basketball.
N.C. Central will open the football season Feb. 20 with a road game against North Carolina A&T and face the Aggies again in Durham on April 10. NCCU also will have home-and-home games with SC State as well as playing Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M.
The league announced that there will be divisional play to minimize travel time and missed classroom time while reducing travel expenses. The basketball season will begin Jan. 2, 2021.
“The mental and physical health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans must be at the forefront,” MEAC commissioner Dennis E. Thomas said in a statement released by the league. “With that in mind, creative and innovative scheduling was required to accomplish our goals. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to restrict travel to regional competition. Hopefully, the type of schedule is for spring 2021 only.”
The MEAC will be celebrating its 50th year.
“We know there will be some suspension of games along the way, we will make the adjustments as needed. This is a very special year for us,” Thomas said in a statement.
In football, the Northern Division will have Delaware State, Howard, Morgan State and Norfolk State. Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M, North Carolina A&T, N.C. Central and South Carolina State will be in the Southern Division.
Northern Division teams will face each other twice. Southern Division schools will have two teams they play twice and two teams they play once. Each team will have two bye weeks.
A divisional format will also be adopted for men’s and women’s basketball, with each school playing 16 games in nine weeks beginning Jan. 2, 2021. Conference games will be played on Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays.
Coppin State, Delaware State, Howard, Maryland Eastern Shore, Morgan State and Norfolk State will make up the Northern Division, with Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M, North Carolina A&T, NC Central and South Carolina State in the Southern Division.
The MEAC basketball tournament is currently scheduled March 8-13, 2021 in the Norfolk Scope Arena.
Thomas said each school would determine if they will allow fans to attend basketball games this season.
The league announced in July it was suspending falls sports because of the coronavirus pandemic.
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 11:01 AM with the headline "MEAC releases spring football schedule. What’s it look like for NC Central?."
