Yale Joins Harvard in Withdrawing From Postseason

ECAC Will Reseed Remainder of Tournament

CHN Staff Report

The ECAC will reseed the remainder of its postseason tournament with six teams, after the decision by Yale to follow Harvard and withdraw, CHN has learned.

Harvard announced earlier in the day that it was canceling all winter sports and barring its players from participating in ongoing postseason competitions. Yale followed suit later in the day.

The decisions are amid growing coronavirus concerns in the U.S. The idea of "social distancing" to help the spread of the disease, has meant in most cases a prohibition on large gatherings, or shutting down schools temporarily. In the case of Yale and Harvard, it means going a step further and prohibiting its athletes from competing in the current postseason.

Earlier, the Ivy League as a whole announced all of its spring sports would be canceled this year, but would leave the decision on winter sports up to the individual schools.

At this point, Cornell and Princeton are moving forward with participation in the ECAC Tournament.

With six remaining teams, that means there will be two quarterfinal series this weekend, with Cornell and Clarkson, the two top seeds, getting byes to the semifinals next weekend in Lake Placid.

No. 4 Rensselaer, which was supposed to host No. 5 Harvard, will now host No. 8 Colgate instead.

No. 3 Quinnipiac, which was supposed to host No. 7 Yale, will now host No. 11 Princeton instead.

RPI will play the game without fans allowed in the building. No official word on that has come from Quinnipiac yet, but speculation is those games are headed that way as well.

At the moment, the ECAC still has plans to allow fans into the building at Lake Placid, but it's a fluid situation changing very rapidly.

Cornell and Clarkson already appear assured of NCAA Tournament bids, assuming those teams continue playing their seasons, and assuming the NCAA continues having the tournament. Wednesday, the NCAA announced all tournaments would continue, but fans would be barred from the events, in all sports.