SALT LAKE CITY — The Mountain West Conference will be canceling all fall 2020 sports with the possibility of rescheduling the season in the spring.
The conference announced Monday the "indefinite postponement" of football, women's soccer, women's volleyball, and men’s and women’s cross country.
League presidents met Monday to vote on the decision, according to reports from ESPN and Stadium.
The announcement will have a major effect on Utah State University, which is a member of the conference.
“If you’re a senior right now, you’re sweating bullets right now because you’re not sure if you’ll ever play another college game again," said play-by-play broadcaster Scott Garrard. "What happens to their eligibility?”
Utah State director of athletics John Hartwell responded to the cancellation with the following statement:
"This has been a stressful time for our student-athletes with all the uncertainties regarding their competitive seasons, and even though sports will not be played this fall, we will continue to provide the resources necessary for their mental health and well-being, and academic successes."
DJ Nelson, a Logan native who red-shirted and played football for four years at USU, feels for those athletes waiting and not knowing what's next.
“The wear and tear it has — not only physically, but mentally — on you, and you invest that much into a sport, to have it just kind of pulled from you over something you can’t really control in any capacity, it’s hard and my heart goes out to those guys.”
It will also affect Brigham Young University. Utah State was scheduled to face BYU in Provo on Oct. 2, and the announcement now adds another to the list of canceled games for the Cougars, who have had several games removed from their schedule due to in-conference only decisions.
Southern Utah University was also set to play the Aggies until the Big Sky Conference announced last week that it would move its football season from the fall to the spring.
The Mountain West Conference also includes the Air Force Academy, Boise State University, Colorado State University, Fresno State University, University of Nevada-Reno, University of New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and University of Wyoming.
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