The Big Sky Conference has postponed football conference play until spring 2021, according to a press release this morning.
“The health and safety of our students is our top priority, and ultimately that concern guided our decision-making process over the past few months as we explored every option regarding the 2020 football season,” Big Sky Presidents’ Council Chair Andy Feinstein said in the release. “We recognize just how meaningful these opportunities are to the student-athletes, coaches, and staff throughout our conference, and empathize that they won’t be able to compete this fall for a Big Sky championship. We are eager to provide our football programs with that opportunity in the spring when it’s hopefully safer to be able to do so.”
Non-conference games are under further review, according to the press release. University of Idaho is looking into playing non-conference games in the fall, UI Director of Athletic Communications Joe St. Pierre said. The only non-conference game UI has scheduled is against Temple University in Philadelphia. There have been no announcements on changes to scheduled games.
“We understand the decision made by the Big Sky Conference Presidents,” UI Director of Athletics Terry Gawlik said. “It was an incredibly difficult decision that was made with the best interests of the student-athletes in mind for the conference as a whole. Moving the Big Sky Conference Football season to the spring hopefully affords our league partners more time to prepare and fine tune their health and safety precautions.”
Idaho’s fall training camp has been postponed until Aug. 14, according to Vandal Athletics. The camp was originally scheduled to begin Aug. 7. There have been no announcements yet on how the postponed conference schedule will affect the camp.
“Big Sky institutions may continue with permissible athletics activities at their discretion while abiding by NCAA legislation, campus policies and local and state regulations,” the press release stated. “Other Big Sky sports that compete in the fall will continue to be reviewed with a final determination made at a later date.”
Big Sky postponing conference play could create a domino effect through the rest of the FCS. If 50% of eligible teams in division one football cancel or postpone the fall season, the NCAA said there will be no fall NCAA championships. This applies to all NCAA divisions and fall, winter and spring sports. As of Aug. 5, the NCAA had already announced the cancellation of all division two and three fall championships.
If the Big Sky postpones conference play to the spring, the number of eligible teams planning to play in the fall drops to 56 out of 111 teams, or 50.5%, according to a tweet from HERO Sports FSC Analyst Sam Herder. Big Sky supports the NCAA shifting conference play to the spring, according to the press release.
This article has been updated to include comment from UI Athletic Director Terry Gawlik.
Alexis Van Horn and Zack Kellogg can be reached at [email protected]