The Pac-12 CEO group voted unanimously Tuesday to postpone all sports through the end of the year, the conference announced.
In a statement, the Pac-12 said if conditions related to the coronavirus improve, it would consider a return to competition after Jan. 1, 2021.
“The health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports has been our number one priority since the start of this current crisis,” said Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott in a statement. “Our student-athletes, fans, staff and all those who love college sports would like to have seen the season played this calendar year as originally planned, and we know how disappointing this is.”
Impacted Pac-12 student athletes will continue to have their scholarships guaranteed. The conference is also encouraging the NCAA to grant students who opt out of playing this academic year an additional year of eligibility.
The league’s medical advisory group had “concerns that many of its current recommendations cannot be achieved consistently across all universities at this point in time. Currently, the availability of frequent, FDA-approved, accurate testing with rapid turn-around time vary at each of the Pac-12 institution locations. In addition, in many locations within the Conference, community test positivity rates and number of cases per 100,000 in the surrounding community exceed levels which infectious disease and public health officials deem safe for group sports.”
The medical advisory group said “it is anticipated that over the next few months, rapid point of care tests will become more available and we will have a greater understanding of potential short- and long-term health effects of COVID-19 to better inform medical decision-making.”
Last month, in the wake of the same decision from the Big Ten, the Pac-12 announced it would proceed with a conference-only football schedule to begin Sept. 26. The Pac-12’s decision to cancel the fall schedule Tuesday again follows the same decision from the Big Ten, which announced that it would cancel fall sports about an hour into the Pac-12’s CEO group meeting.
The CEO group is made up of a chancellor or president from each of the conference’s 12 universities and is the ultimate decision-maker for the Pac-12.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach contributed to this report.
