Kent State’s Wednesday game against Toledo has been postponed.
The decision was not unexpected. The Flashes last week “paused” practice and team activities because of COVID-19 issues and postponed games scheduled against Akron and Western Michigan. The Mid-American Conference said it plans to reschedule the games.
COVID Quarantine lasts 10 to 14 days, and Wednesday will be nine or 10 days since the Flashes stopped activity. KSU’s next game is scheduled to be at Northern Illinois Saturday.
NIU will play Toledo Wednesday. Toledo’s scheduled Wednesday game against Ball State was canceled because of COVID problems at BSU. That now leaves both Toledo and Ball State with an open date on Feb. 6.
The schedule shuffle seems to be the way the MAC is going to go for the rest of the season. If two teams are free and haven’t played yet, they’ll be scheduled — even on a couple of days’ notice.
NIU lost its first two MAC games, then has won four in a row, including beating previously undefeated Bowling Green and Central Michigan.
Kent State is the only undefeated team left in the MAC at 4-0. Buffalo is 5-1; everyone else has lost at least two.
I’m trying to figure out how the league standings will work if teams don’t play the same number of games. I suspect it would be like football, where they went by winning percentage if teams played a minimum number of games. To qualify for the NCAA Tournament, a team has to play at least 13 games (half of the maximum 25). If MAC did the same thing, that would be 10 league games. Of course, the conference can always change the rules. (See Ohio State football.)
Vanderbilt canceled the rest of its its season today. That’s three Power 5 teams — Duke, Virginia and Vanderbilt — that have done so. San Jose State and Dixie State also have ended their 2020-21 seasons.