The NJCAA has canceled athletics for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year.
The NJCAA decision affects baseball and softball at NOC Enid and NOC Tonkawa and also the NOC Tonkawa Mavericks who were set to participate in the NJCAA Men’s National Basketball Tournament.
According to a statement from NJCAA, following the recent recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the NJCAA has made the difficult decision to cancel all upcoming basketball championships as well as spring competition, effective immediately.
“In light of the progressive evolvement of the COVID-19 situation, the NJCAA has decided to end all competition for the remainder of the academic year,” stated Dr. Christopher Parker, NJCAA President & CEO. “As an association, the NJCAA exhausted all possible avenues to potentially postpone competition for both upcoming basketball championships and spring sport competition. We believe following the recommendations of the CDC is in the best interest of our member colleges and our student-athletes.”
Spring competition includes all practices, regular season, postseason, and national championship play.
Regarding eligibility for spring sports, no spring sport student-athlete who was enrolled at a member college in 2020 will be charged a year of participation.
Along with the cancellation of competition, all on and off-campus recruiting for all sports will be halted until April 15 with further evaluation to be assessed at that point in time.
The NJCAA will explore the opportunity to expand allowable Letters of Intent for spring sports for both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years under the recommendation of the NJCAA Eligibility Committee.
The NJCAA will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as more information becomes available.
Last Friday, the NJCAA suspended play until April 3 but today decided to cancel athletics for the remainder of the school year.
Northern Oklahoma College, the state’s first public community college, is a multi-campus, land-grant institution that provides high quality, accessible, and affordable educational opportunities and services which create life-changing experiences and develop students as effective learners and leaders within their communities in a connected, ever changing world.
NOC, a public two year community college, serves 4,200 students on the home campus in Tonkawa, branch in Enid, NOC/OSU Gateway Program in Stillwater, online, and the University Center in Ponca City.
In 2019, NOC celebrated the 20-year anniversary of the Enid campus and a 15-year partnership with OSU for the Gateway Program.
NOC is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and offers associate degrees in three general areas: Arts, Science and Applied Science. The associate degree fulfills lower-division course work which is applicable towards a bachelor’s degree.
Call (580) 628-6200 for more information about Northern Oklahoma College or visit www.noc.edu .
