Southland Conference Moves Football to the Spring

The Southland Conference will reportedly be moving the conference schedule to the spring as they will cancel fall sports according to Randy McIlvoy of KPRC2.

The Southland members can pursue a non-conference schedule this fall if they so choose, a move that has also been allowed by the Big South and Missouri Valley Football Conference.

The Southland Conference confirmed the news on Thursday morning in a press release.

Being told by college football sources that the @SouthlandSports fall sports will be cancelled w/an announcement planned for Thurs. One exception is if fball programs want to keep Non Conf gms they can. Conf. gms will move to the spring. Timing for camp/games still TBD. @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/VofwEc0pQW

— Randy McIlvoy (@KPRC2RandyMc) August 13, 2020

The Southland’s decision means only two FCS conferences are still planning to play non-conference and conference schedules are the Ohio Valley Conference and Southern Conference.

An additional 60 games could be canceled or postponed by the decision. 11 non-conference games, which are still eligible to be played, are marked with an asterisk while 49 conference games will be moved to the spring.

Five Southland teams are currently planning on non-conference games while another five will not. The five programs considering playing are Abilene Christian, Central Arkansas, Houston Baptist, Lamar, and Stephen F. Austin. SFA has moved its September 12 game versus SMU to September 26.

The six teams who have opted not to pursue non-conference games are McNeese, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Sam Houston State, Southeastern Louisiana, and Incarnate Word.

One non-conference game that will not be played is Southeastern Louisiana at Tulane. The Lions informed Tulane they would not play the opening game schedule for Thursday, September 3.

Date	Away	Home
8/29*	Austin Peay	Central Arkansas
9/3	Incarnate Word	Northwestern State
9/3*	Southeastern Louisiana	Tulane
9/5*	McNeese	Louisiana
9/5*	Houston Baptist	North Texas
9/12	Incarnate Word	Lamar
9/12	Nicholls	Northwestern State
9/12	Central Arkansas	Abilene Christian
9/12*	Stephen F. Austin	SMU
9/12*	Houston Baptist	Texas Tech
9/19	Abilene Christian	McNeese
9/19*	Southeastern Louisiana	Jacksonville State
9/19	Lamar	Stephen F. Austin
9/19*	Northwestern State	Tulsa
9/19	Sam Houston State	Nicholls
9/19*	Houston Baptist	Louisiana Tech
9/19*	Central Arkansas	Arkansas State
9/26	Sam Houston State	Incarnate Word
9/26	Houston Baptist	Northwestern State
9/26	Abilene Christian	Stephen F. Austin
9/26*	Lamar	Rice
9/26	McNeese	Southeastern Louisiana
9/26	Nicholls	Central Arkansas
10/3	Central Arkansas	McNeese
10/3	Southeastern Louisiana	Lamar
10/3	Incarnate Word	Abilene Christian
10/3	Stephen F. Austin	Sam Houston State
10/10	Abilene Christian	Sam Houston State
10/10	Lamar	Central Arkansas
10/10	McNeese	Houston Baptist
10/10	Northwestern State	Southeastern Louisiana
10/10	Stephen F. Austin	Nicholls
10/17	Southeastern Louisiana	Incarnate Word
10/17	Houston Baptist	Lamar
10/17	Sam Houston State	Northwestern State
10/17	Nicholls	Abilene Christian
10/24	McNeese	Sam Houston State
10/24	Central Arkansas	Stephen F. Austin
10/24	Abilene Christian	Southeastern Louisiana
10/24	Nicholls	Houston Baptist
10/31	Stephen F. Austin	McNeese
10/31	Incarnate Word	Nicholls
10/31	Houston Baptist	Southeastern Louisiana
10/31	Lamar	Abilene Christian
10/31	Northwestern State	Central Arkansas
11/7	Central Arkansas	Sam Houston State
11/7	Northwestern State	Lamar
11/7	Nicholls	McNeese
11/7	Houston Baptist	Incarnate Word
11/7	Southeastern Louisiana	Stephen F. Austin
11/14	Stephen F. Austin	Incarnate Word
11/14	Sam Houston State	Lamar
11/14	McNeese	Northwestern State
11/14	Abilene Christian	Houston Baptist
11/14	Central Arkansas	Southeastern Louisiana
11/19	Northwestern State	Stephen F. Austin
11/19	Southeastern Louisiana	Nicholls
11/21	Lamar	McNeese
11/21	Sam Houston State	Houston Baptist
11/21	Incarnate Word	Abilene Christian

As it stands, over 650 games featuring FCS teams have now been canceled or postponed for the 2020 season.

Photo courtesy of the Southland Conference.