The University of Maryland, Baltimore County on Friday became the second America East women’s basketball team to opt out of its season due to COVID-19 concerns.
The move again has created challenges for league administrators and athletic directors, who are trying to provide schools with games prior to the league tournament, which begins the first week of March.
The University of Vermont women’s program also previously opted out of the season.
The University of Maine now must wait to find out how UMBC’s departure will impact the remainder of the season and the playoffs.
UMaine on Jan. 25 paused competitions for its winter sports teams due to COVID-19 cases. The situation will be reassessed on Thursday. Team personnel who have tested negative and aren’t subject to contract tracing have been able to continue athletic activities.
America East, which last week announced its format for the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, may now be forced to re-evaluate the women’s event.
The men’s tournament is still a go, because no teams have opted out.
The original plan calls for the top two seeds to receive quarterfinal-round byes and advance to the semifinals, which would be played at a site located within a three-hour drive of Piscataway, New Jersey, home of the lab of the league’s COVID-19 testing partner.
The quarterfinals include two, four-team pods hosted by the Nos. 3 and 4 seeds.
A possible new scenario might feature three-team pods for the first two rounds in which the Nos. 3-4 seeds receive a first-round bye while the two lower-seeded teams in each group play for the right to face those seeds in the quarterfinals.
The league-leading UMaine women (12-1 overall, 9-1 AE) have played the minimum 12 games to be eligible for the NCAA Tournament. However, their scheduled games with Vermont and UMBC have been canceled.
The Black Bears have just four games left, two each against their closest pursuers. UMaine hosts UMass Lowell (8-4 AE) at 4 p.m. Saturday and at 1 p.m. Sunday at Memorial Gym in Orono and travels to Stony Brook (8-2 AE) for a series Feb. 13-14.
However, if the present schedule stands, UMaine would go into the conference tourney having not played a game in at least 14 days, or possibly more than three weeks.
“There is a discussion of adding two more games but the league hasn’t made any decisions yet,” Tyson McHatten, UMaine’s senior associate athletic director for external operations and communications, said Monday.
Any additional games would be against a team UMaine has already played.
The UMaine men were scheduled to visit UMass Lowell this weekend but that has been postponed and UMass Lowell instead is playing New Hampshire.
The Black Bears are slated to play a makeup series on Feb. 13-14 at home against Binghamton. UMaine (2-7 overall, 2-6 AE) needs at least three more regular-season games to have NCAA Tournament eligibility.
When the UMaine men face Binghamton, it will be their first game since Jan. 17.