The Mountain West conference has canceled its football season this fall due to players’ health and safety concerns regarding COVID-19, sources told Stadium.
In a vote of league presidents Monday, Mountain West became the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS)’s second conference to cancel all of its fall sports, sources said.
The Mountain West will consider football in the spring, sources said.
Earlier Monday, Stadium first reported that Old Dominion, a member of Conference USA, had canceled football and all of its fall sports. On Saturday, the Mid-American Conference canceled all bankruptcy sports, including football. Last week, UConn, an independent, became the first FBS school to announce that it would not be playing this fall.
With the cancellation of the football season for the 12-member Mountain West, a total of 26 FBS schools have now chosen not to play this fall.
On Monday, there were multiple reports that the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences would cancel their fall football seasons on Tuesday.
As for the Mountain West, last week league presidents overwhelmingly wanted to go ahead with plans to play football this fall. However, those opinions flipped, sources said, with the growing number of positive COVID-19 cases in the Mountain West footprint, as well as the decision of the Mid-Americans to cancel their season.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes were important in our decision,” a source said.
After the MAC canceled its season on Saturday, a Power Five source told Stadium that the ‘college football season’ is finally done. I do not think everyone necessarily follows the MAC, but it does give other presidents one more reason to make an easier decision. The biggest thing is unknown long-term impact of involved COVID & liability. I’m not optimistic. ”
The 26 schools that have opted out of Monday afternoon play: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State and Wyoming of the Mountain West; Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green State, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo and Western Michigan from the MAC; ODU of Conference USA and independent UConn.
Several smaller football division subdivision (FCS) conferences have also canceled their fall football seasons. The NCAA announced last week that all Division II and III fall sports championships will be canceled.
MORE: Sources: MAC Cancels Fall College Football Season
