ESCANABA — The Bay College Norse sports lineup will see a change for the 2020-21 season after a plan was approved Monday by the National Junior College Athletic Association to try to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on junior college sports.

The NJCAA voted to move fall sports — including football, volleyball and soccer — to the spring while delaying the start of winter sports.

The big changes for the Norse will be felt with baseball, softball and basketball. The baseball and softball teams will play exhibition games in the fall with practice beginning as early as Sept. 5. Between Sep. 5 and Nov. 15, the baseball team will be allowed 15 scrimmage dates with outside teams while softball will be allowed seven. However, the spring championship season will remain relatively unchanged with a practice start date of Jan. 10.

Men’s and women’s basketball faced perhaps the biggest change with a delay of about 10 weeks to the start of the season on Jan. 22. Both teams are allowed a maximum of 22 games.

Cross country will proceed as normal with the exception of the slightly delayed start of Aug. 1.