Mountain West Conference cancels fall football season
By Scott Rogust
There will be no Mountain West football this fall
College football has been a major topic of discussion on Monday, as sports radio host Dan Patrick revealed that sources told him the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences will cancel their fall seasons on Tuesday. While it’s not official, one conference did confirm the news that a fall campaign is out of the question.
According to Brett McMurphy of Stadium, the Mountain West Conference has canceled its football season due to health and safety concerns for it’s players, stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. While there will be no football in the fall, sources told McMurphy that they haven’t ruled out potentially playing in the spring.
More news: Mountain West cancels fall football season because of COVID player health & safety concerns, sources told @Stadium. League will consider playing in spring. MW & MAC are 1st two FBS leagues opting not to play, bringing total to 26 FBS programs https://t.co/LPi7iX4tzA
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 10, 2020
Mountain West now the second conference to pull the plug on a fall season
The Mountain West is now the second conference to postpone its season after the Mid Atlantic Conference opted to do so on Saturday morning. Here are the 26 teams that won’t be playing on a gridiron this fall:
- Air Force
- Boise State
- Colorado State
- Fresno State
- Hawaii
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- San Diego State
- San Jose State
- UNLV
- Utah State
- Wyoming
- Akron
- Ball State
- Bowling Green State
- Buffalo
- Central Michigan
- Eastern Michigan
- Kent State
- Miami (Ohio)
- Northern Illinois
- Ohio
- Toledo
- Western Michigan
- Old Dominion (Conference USA)
- UCONN (Independent)
Last week, presidents of the Mountain West were confident in their ability to run a full season without any pauses or roadblocks caused by the coronavirus. In fact, the Mountain West announced a schedule for the 2020 season that included eight conference-only games and two non-league contests. That all changed by Monday due to the spike in new COVID-19 cases in the areas of the conference.
As for the Big Ten, they’ve yet to take an official vote on the potential postponement of the season. Meanwhile, Pac-12 presidents are set to meet on Tuesday to discuss and potentially vote on how to move forward with the football season. Additionally, the ACC is reportedly “moving forward in an attempt to play.”
Related Story. Kirk Herbstreit throws cold water on reports of the Big Ten canceling fall season. light
The status of the college football season will continue to be in flux until all conferences make an official determination. The Mountain West did just that and will now try and pivot to playing this spring. Of course, that’s all dependent on whether the spread of COVID-19 is curbed and if we have an effective vaccine by then.