STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The Stony Brook football team now has clarity about its spring season.
CAA Football announced on Wednesday the intention for members to play a six-game conference schedule.
Conference play is expected to begin on March 6 and conclude on April 17, with each team receiving a bye week during the seven-week timeframe.
Stony Brook additionally plans to play two nonconference games, upping its total games to the maximum of eight allowed by the NCAA for this spring season.
"We are excited about today's announcement of our winter/spring football season," Stony Brook football coach Chuck Priore said. "We have been preparing since July's postponement announcement with great anticipation to compete this academic year. It's obvious that health and safety measures are the way to accomplish this goal. Our players have been awesome with their dedication to all policies and procedures. We will be ready to compete for a CAA Championship when the time comes."
CAA Football will use a North/South divisional format, with all six league games for Stony Brook coming against teams from the North division.
The makeup of the divisions and the final conference schedule will be announced in the next several weeks.
The team with the best overall conference record will be the conference's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Football Championship.
Should the divisional champions finish with the same record, a tiebreaking policy will be used to determine the automatic qualifier.
Stony Brook may play its nonconference games against CAA Football members, but those games will not count toward the conference standings and the outcome would not be used in the tiebreaking procedures.
Based on NCAA guidelines, teams are allowed to begin nonconference competition as early as Jan. 23.
"All of our institutions know that today's announcement is simply the first step in the planning process associated with playing football on each of our campuses in the spring," CAA commissioner Joe D'Antonio said. "Each member institution, as well as the conference office, has additional protocols that must be finalized and approved in order to ensure a safe return to the field.
"Our goal in creating this unique scheduling format was to implement a competitive model while also trying to reduce the risks associated with travel as much as we could. It's been an extremely difficult and challenging time, but it's nice to be able to give our coaches, student-athletes and fans something to look forward to. Health and safety remain at the forefront of every decision we are making, and we are hopeful about getting the spring 2021 season underway."
On July 17, CAA Football announced its decision to suspend fall conference competition due to continuing concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, the conference expressed a strong commitment to conducting a football season in the spring of 2021. The institutions' athletics directors have worked closely with conference staff to make that happen.
The NCAA Board of Directors recently approved a revised format for the NCAA FCS playoffs, which will feature 16 teams — 11 automatic qualifiers and five at-large berths. The playoffs are set to begin on April 24, with a champion being crowned in Frisco, Texas, on May 14, 15 or 16.
