The long-anticipated announcement was made: Ferris sports are returning in full soon.
On Wednesday, Nov. 11. the GLIAC conference approved plans for sports to return at the turn of the new year. This includes sports such as men’s and women’s basketball, women’s soccer, volleyball, men and women’s tennis and potentially football.
Multiple schedule announcements were planned in the release.
Men’s and women’s basketball were announced Thursday, Nov. 12 at 1 p.m via a GLIAC web stream. The 18-game league slate, which begins on Jan. 7, will feature back-to-back games against the same opponent each week, with each school’s men’s and women’s team facing the same opponent but trading off who’s home and away. Unlike previous seasons, there will not be any GLIAC doubleheaders (men’s and women’s teams playing on the same day at the same location). If the men are at home against an opponent, the women will play on the road against that same opponent and vice versa.
Both men and women’s basketball will open the season against Ashland, with the men’s team at home against the Eagles while the women’s team is away.
The rest of the basketball schedule consists of, in order: Parkside, Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Grand Valley, Saginaw Valley, Lake Superior State again, Purdue Northwest and Wayne State.
The home games for the men’s basketball team are Ashland, Northern Michigan, the first Lake Superior State game, Grand Valley and Purdue Northwest.
The home games for the women’s basketball team are Parkside, Michigan Tech, Saginaw Valley, the second Lake Superior State matchup and Wayne State.
Men’s and women’s soccer will be announced Monday, Nov. 16 at 11 a.m. Volleyball will announce their schedules at a later date. The fall women’s tennis season will compete in conjunction with the men’s tennis season. The fall 2020 cross country season was officially canceled.
The approved schedule models for fall sports competing in the spring feature a reduced conference-only regular season, plus a conference tournament.
Winter sports that don’t operate with a conference schedule, such as swimming & diving and indoor track & field, may compete according to normal NCAA guidelines, while men’s and women’s basketball will have a unique conference schedule that begins Jan. 7. The presidents of the GLIAC are allowing non-conference games at the institution’s discretion.
Football is still undecided regarding the prospects of playing in the spring leaving it to the schools to autonomously schedule scrimmages or up to five spring competitions. At the moment, it does not appear that any GLIAC schools are planning on playing during the designated openings.
Plans for game attendance are still being finalized according to Ferris athletics, with the potential for variance between sports. Information on attendance is expected to be released in the near future.
Spring 2021 sports schedules have remained as is, but all schedules are subject to change due to the pandemic.