Photo courtesy of Nevada Athletics. Nevada football and all fall sports will be canceled after the Mountain West’s decision on Monday, Aug. 10.

As first reported by Brett McMurphy of Stadium, the Mountain West Conference canceled its fall sports season due to COVID-19 concerns and will consider playing football in the spring. 

The Mountain West became the second Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conference to cancel all fall sports. A total of 26 FBS teams have opted not to play football this fall. This comes after Power 5 conferences including the Big Ten and PAC-12 canceled their football seasons. 

Nevada’s fall sports season was originally scheduled to begin no earlier than the week of Saturday, Sept. 26, pushing the fall sports season back at least one month. The decision effectively cancels football, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, cross country, tennis, track and field, swimming and diving and men’s and women’s golf at Nevada.

Before the cancellation, Nevada football was going to consist of eight conference games with up to two non-conference games per team. The Mountain West Football Championship Game would have potential dates of Dec. 5, Dec. 12 or Dec. 19. 

In a press statement, Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said further cancellations or delays to the fall sports season may be put in place as the year progressed. With the cancellation of all fall sports, the decision has been made in efforts to keep students, coaches and other faculty safe.

“Since the start of the pandemic, our membership and staff have been working diligently to prepare for a fall sports season,” Thompson said. “We were hopeful we could carefully and responsibly conduct competition as originally scheduled with essential protocols in place. However, numerous external factors and unknowns outside our control made this difficult decision necessary. I fully understand the impact of this outcome on our student- athletes, coaches, administrators and staff who work so hard daily to play the sports we all love, and I share in their disappointment. We will continue to navigate this pandemic together, overcome the obstacles and return to intercollegiate athletics at the earliest opportunity.”

Isaiah Burrows can be reached at iburrows@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @SagebrushSports.