Full-Contact Football Still Out In CT, Sports Governing Body Says

CONNECTICUT — Full-contact, 11-versus-11 high school football has been ruled out for the 2020 fall season following a meeting of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) Board of Control Wednesday. The board had been scheduled to meet Thursday, but CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini said members "felt it was important enough to move it up."

The decision came following the rejection of several safety alternatives proposed late last week by the CIAC to the state Department of Public Health, which has deemed football to be too high-risk in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

A written statement from the CIAC reads:

At its September 16, 2020, meeting, the CIAC Board of Control reaffirmed its September 3 decision to cancel full contact football for the 2020-2021 school year. This decision was made in alignment with the Connecticut Department of Health’s recommendation that football is a high-risk sport and should not be played this fall. The board did, however, agree it would consider allowing competition at a later time for a sport that cannot hold its regularly scheduled season, such as football, provided it does not negatively impact spring sports.

Lungarini said, "CIAC made every effort to weigh all factors in this decision, including the passionate voices of students, parents, and school personnel, and ultimately made the determination to align its decision with the recommendations of the Governor’s office and DPH to not hold high-risk sports at this time. In conversation with other state associations across the country, it was clear that a key factor in playing interscholastic football was alignment with the opinion of their state’s governor and state health agency."

The CIAC football committee plans to recommend low- and moderate-risk football activities. Those recommendations are expected later this week, according to the statement.

In a Zoom Meeting news conference, Lungarini said, "We've exhausted all the potential strategies to mitigate the risk to a moderate level." He added no timeline for a possible move to later in the school year had been established, though he mentioned other states have set up a late February to early April plan.

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