On Thursday, the Big East announced changes to the 2020 regular-season schedules for men’s soccer, women’s soccer, volleyball and field hockey.
In order to mitigate travel and a potential spike in COVID-19 cases among student-athletes, Big East teams will only play against other programs within newly established regional divisions.
Men’s soccer, women’s soccer and volleyball, the conference will compete in the East Division and the Midwest Division. The East Division will comprise of Seton Hall, Providence, St. John’s, Georgetown, Villanova, and the new addition of Connecticut, while the Midwest will have Xavier, Marquette, Butler, DePaul, and Creighton.
In men’s and women’s soccer and field hockey, teams will face their divisional opponents twice in a round-robin format while volleyball opponents will play each other four times.
Men's soccer were 0-3-1 against their regional divison opponents, while women's soccer had a 1-3-0 record against them. Volleyball beat Georgetown twice while holding a 3-5 record against East Division opponents last year.
As for field hockey, the teams will compete in the North and South Divisions. Connecticut, Providence, Quinnipiac, and Temple make up the North Division, and Georgetown, Villanova, Liberty, and Old Dominion will take part in the South Division.
In regards to each sport's respective Big East Championship, the dates, formats, and sites will be announced at a later date.
According to a tweet from Zach Braziller of the New York Post, it seems unlikely that regional divisions will also be established for Big East basketball.
Brendan Balsamo can be reached at brendan.balsamo@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @BrenBal.
