The Mountain West is postponing all scheduled fall sports contests indefinitely in response to the ongoing challenges of effectively mitigating and managing COVID-19, the conference announced Monday.
Fall sports affected by the postponement include men’s and women’s cross country, football, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.
Last week, the conference announced that all fall competition in men’s and women’s golf, tennis, women’s swimming and diving, indoor track and field, softball and baseball were canceled.
“We are supportive of the Mountain West Conference Board of Directors’ decision regarding fall sports,” said Fresno State Director of Athletics Terry Tumey, according to Fresno State Athletics. “As we have stated from the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches, staff, and community have been, and will continue to be, our number one priority.
The Mountain West added that discussions are ongoing regarding the status of winter sports.
Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said that the conference had been preparing for a fall sports season, but ultimately decided that it would be too much of an endeavor to successfully accomplish safely.
“We were hopeful we could carefully and responsibly conduct competition with essential protocols in place,” Thompson said. “However, numerous external factors and unknowns outside of our control made this difficult decision necessary.”