Mountain West postponing fall sports

The Mountain West Conference announced Monday that it will postpone all its scheduled fall sports due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

The collegiate athletic conference said in a press release that it will “indefinitely” delay all fall sports contests and championship events “in response to ongoing challenges with the effective mitigation and management of the COVID-19 virus.” 

The postponed sports include men’s and women’s cross country, football, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.

The news comes after the Mountain West Conference announced last week that the fall competitions for men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, and softball and baseball were canceled.

Conference officials are in “ongoing discussions regarding the status of winter sports” and are looking into potentially rescheduling fall sports competitions, including possibly in the spring. 

“We were hopeful we could carefully and responsibly conduct competition as originally scheduled with essential protocols in place,” Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said in a statement. “However, numerous external factors and unknowns outside our control made this difficult decision necessary.”

“I fully understand the impact of this outcome on our student- athletes, coaches, administrators and staff who work so hard daily to play the sports we all love, and I share in their disappointment,” he added. “We will continue to navigate this pandemic together, overcome the obstacles and return to intercollegiate athletics at the earliest opportunity.”

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— Mountain West (@MountainWest) August 10, 2020

The conference is the second in the Football Bowl Subdivision to push back fall sports, including football, following the Mid-American Conference, which announced its delay over the weekend. 

The news comes after the conference released a football schedule for eight conference games and up to two non-league games, starting no earlier than Sept. 26, ESPN reported.

Sports organizations across the country are balancing the desire to return to playing with the potential spread of coronavirus. Major League Baseball has seen two outbreaks, on the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals, causing postponements of several games just as baseball was reopening.