VALDOSTA, Ga. – Valdosta State Director of Athletics Herb Reinhard provided an update on VSU fall sports in relation to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic on Tuesday.

“With all the speculation that is swirling about regarding intercollegiate sports and the fall seasons please note the following regarding the status of Valdosta State University athletics:

1. Neither Valdosta State University or the Gulf South Conference have suspended fall sport seasons. To date, four of the 23 NCAA Division II conferences have announced suspensions of their fall sport seasons and another three are expected to make announcements of a suspension in the near future. The Gulf South Conference and its’ member institutions are carefully monitoring the COVID-19 situation. Valdosta State at this time is moving forward with plans to have fall sport seasons.

2. The suspension of the fall sport season by the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) has cancelled Blazer football’s first three-games. We now have a seven-game GSC schedule which meets the NCAA requirements for participation in NCAA post-season championship play. VSU’s first football game is now scheduled for September 26th. We are looking at possible opportunities to fill dates and will announce such if that were to happen.

3. The ability to play collegiate sports this fall is a very fluid situation and obviously the current COVID-19 trend is not moving in a positive direction in regards to the ability to play fall sports. If the Gulf South Conference and member schools were to make a decision to suspend fall sports there is a strong likelihood that the conference would look to sponsor the fall sports during the spring in conjunction with the traditional spring sports.