Yale cheerleaders.
(Image credit: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

The Ivy League is canceling winter sports for the 2020-21 season, becoming the first Division I conference to do so, and postponing the start of spring sports until at least the end of February.

Winter sports like basketball and hockey had already been delayed until at least Jan. 1. The cancellation was a unanimous decision made by the Ivy League Council of Presidents, and in a statement released on Thursday, the group said "the current trends regarding transmission of the COVID-19 virus and subsequent protocols that must be put in place are impeding our strong desire to return to intercollegiate athletics competition in a safe manner."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.