SALT LAKE CITY — The Pac-12 Conference announced Tuesday that it will be postponing all sports competition through the end of the calendar year.
The conference cited concerns from athletics directors and the Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee over continuing "contact practice."
When conditions improve, the conference may reschedule the impacted seasons after Jan. 1, 2021.
The student-athletes affected will still have their scholarships guaranteed, the Pac-12 said.
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said that while the conference had been working to make a plan to keep student-athletes safe in conjunction with medical advisors and local government orders, it continued to become more challenging.
“Unlike professional sports, college sports cannot operate in a bubble,” he said. “Our athletic programs are a part of broader campuses in communities where in many cases the prevalence of COVID-19 is significant. We will continue to monitor the situation and when conditions change we will be ready to explore all options to play the impacted sports in the new calendar year.”
The change will affect the University of Utah Utes' sports teams — not only those in the fall season, but others that would have begun in the winter of 2020.
"We know there is a great deal of disappointment around this decision for all involved," U of U athletics director Mark Harlan said in a statement. "I write to you today in acknowledgment and recognition of your passion and loyalty to the University of Utah and the young people who represent all of us so admirably in athletics."
Read Harlan's full statement here.
Utes' football head coach Kyle Whittingham responded:
Statement from @UtahCoachWhitt: pic.twitter.com/ibbqbdyAJL
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) August 11, 2020
The announcement comes the same day that the Big Ten Conference also announced it would postpone the fall sports season.
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Pac-12 officials discussed the announcement in the video below:
