SJSU Sports On Hold; Mountain West Conference Suspends All Fall Programs
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – San Jose State University student-athletes will not play sports this fall following a decision by the Mountain West Conference to indefinitely postpone all fall sports contests due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The conference's board of directors made the decision on Monday. Along with football, cross country, women's soccer and women's volleyball have also been suspended, the university said in a statement. Last week, the conference had canceled fall competition in golf, tennis, women's swimming and diving, men's and women's indoor track and field, softball and baseball.
Conference officials said they will begin exploring the possibility of rescheduling fall sports contests in the spring. Discussions are ongoing about the status of sports that are normally played in winter.
"Through the hard work of many over the past several months, the Conference made every effort to create an opportunity for our student-athletes to compete, and we empathize with the disappointment this creates for everyone associated with our programs," said San Jose State University President Mary Papazian, who is also the chair of the Mountain West Conference's board of directors.
"The best interests of our students and student-athletes remain our focus and we will persist in our efforts to forge a viable and responsible path forward," Papazian went on to say.
Football coach Brent Brennan said "we have a resilient team and we plan to be ready whenever our season begins."
The Mountain West's decision comes as the Pac-12 Conference, which includes UC Berkeley and Stanford, announced Tuesday it would postpone fall sports into next year at the earliest. Hours earlier the Big Ten Conference made a similar announcement.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has urged for the college football season to proceed. Trump made the push in tweets on Monday and in a Fox Sports radio interview on Tuesday, where he said it would be a "tragic mistake" to cancel the season because he doesn't believe that the athletes will have problems if infected by coronavirus.
