Summit League Announces Fall Sports Plans, Championship Locations

The Summit League has announced its plan on hosting the fall sports this upcoming spring, and the league will host a championship at the Sanford Pentagon.

Today (October 28), the Summit League provided the roadmap of how they intend to play the volleyball, men's soccer, and women's soccer season this upcoming spring. All three sports were pushed to the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Volleyball and women's soccer will play a double round-robin format regular-season schedule and conclude it with a modified Summit League championship tournament. Only four teams will qualify for the conference tournament following the end of the regular season. Volleyball's championship will be played at the Sanford Pentagon on April 2-3. Women's soccer will be held at Caniglia Field in Omaha on April 15-17.

Men's soccer will be slightly different. Like the women, the men will play a double round-robin regular season. However, the men's Joint Council has agreed that the team that wins the regular-season will be automatically crowned as the conference champions.

The official plans as announced by the league are:

Volleyball

• 16-match regular season beginning Sunday, Jan. 31, and going through Saturday, March 27.
• The league’s nine members will play a double-round robin format with each team receiving one bye during the spring season. Teams will play the same opponent twice at one site.
• A four-team Championship will take place April 2-3 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
• South Dakota, the 2019 regular-season champion, will retain the right to host the 2021 Championship.

Women’s Soccer

• 16-match regular season beginning Friday, Feb. 12 and going through Sunday, April 11.
• The league’s nine members will play a double-round robin format with each team receiving one bye during the spring season. Teams will play the same opponent twice at one site.
• A four-team Championship will take place April 15-17 at Caniglia Field in Omaha, Neb.
• Denver, the 2019 regular-season champion, will retain the right to host the 2021 Championship.

Men’s Soccer

• 10-match regular season starting Saturday, Feb. 13 and going through Saturday, April 10.
• The league’s six men’s soccer members will play a double-round robin format during the spring season with a match at each respective school’s travel partner to open and close the season. In between, teams will play the same opponent twice at one site with three bye weeks and a make-up week built into the schedule.
• The Joint Council agreed to grant the league’s automatic bid to the regular-season champion and forego a Championship in the spring.
• Western Illinois, the 2019 regular-season co-champion, will retain the right to the 2021 Championship.

More information about each of the sports can be found online through the Summit League. The Summit League also reminds that these plans are subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic.