NCAA Division III Cancels All 2021 Winter Championships

The NCAA has decided to cancel all Division III winter championships, including basketball and hockey, due to low participation numbers among member schools.

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Sports affected by this decision include men's and women's hockey, men's/women's basketball, men's/women's swimming and diving, indoor track and field and wrestling.

According to the NCAA's release that was distributed Wednesday night, 98% of member schools completed a declaration form on whether or not they plan to participate in the winter sports season and/or would meet the requirements to play in a postseason.

Less than 60% of basketball, swim/dive and track and field programs are participating this winter, and less than 70% of hockey and wrestling programs reported participation this year.

“Today, we made the difficult decision to cancel our Division III winter championships. While some institutions have been able to safely return to sport, the recent declaration form data show that more than half of our division has not returned to winter sport practice and competition to be in a position for NCAA national championship participation,” said Fayneese Miller, chair of the Presidents Council and president at Hamline in the NCAA's release.

“This was a very difficult decision to make, and we are saddened to do so. However, none of our winter sports meet the Championships Committee’s established thresholds of participation to hold a championship. We are committed to ensuring that our student-athletes have the best possible experience, and, for us, this means having a meaningful number of competitions. We hope this is possible for our spring championship.”