Officials from both the Mountain West and Atlantic 10 announced on Tuesday that a challenge series between multiple teams in the conferences has been postponed due to pandemic related scheduling difficulties.
The Mountain West-Atlantic 10 Challenge Series was scheduled to take place in December. The parameters of the Challenge featured 10 matchups (20 teams total). Five contests were to take place at Mountain West venues while the other five would have been hosted by Atlantic 10 facilities. The challenge is a two-year agreement that comes with an option to extend.
Duquesne was scheduled to face Wyoming in Laramie as part of the challenge. That game will no longer take place.
"We believe that everything being done right now is in the best interest of the student athletes," Duquesne's Associate Athletic Director, Dave Saba, said. "With the schedules the way they are it's an appropriate decision to delay it for a year. With the Mountain West schools coming east and our schools going west, it would've been difficult to maintain those dates when teams are still looking to fill their non-conference schedules right now."
Last week it was announced that the start date for Men's Division I college basketball competition would be Nov. 25. The announcement was accompanied by both excitement and stress. Programs now know when their seasons will tip off but must to scramble to form a non-conference schedule on short notice.
On top of finding opponents to play, athletic departments must also continue to make decisions on what is best for the health and safety of the players, coaches and others involved directly with the program.
"We've been kind of playing it by ear," coach Keith Dambrot tells DK Pittsburgh Sports. "We are trying to decide what we want to do with (the pre-season). What's in the best interest of our players both physically and emotionally."
Saba says Duquesne will hopefully have its full regular season schedule released in two to three weeks.