FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Happy trails, college football. Who knows when we’ll see you again.
With the Mountain West officially announcing the postponement of all fall sports, the 2020 college football season, along with a variety of other forms of competition are all currently in a state of limbo.
In a statement released Monday evening, the league confirmed Brett McMurphy’s earlier report, officially plunging the dagger into the hearts of Ram fans everywhere.
The Mountain West has announced the indefinite postponement of all scheduled fall sports contests and MW championship events in response to ongoing challenges with the effective mitigation and management of the COVID-19 virus in conjunction with athletic competition. The MW Board of Directors prioritized the physical and mental health and well-being of the Conference’s student-athletes and overall campus communities in its decision – as it has done throughout the course of the pandemic.
According to the press release, the Mountain West will explore the potential of playing in the spring but nothing is official at this moment in time.
Shortly after the league confirmed that it was postponing fall competition, CSU’s director of athletics, Joe Parker, also released a statement via a school spokesperson.
“This is certainly a disappointing development for our student-athletes, coaches, and staff who have devoted their full attention to get ready for a fall season. However, as the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has altered our landscape, we have always stressed that the health and safety of our student-athletes and community at large is the most important factor driving our decision-making processes.
With the postponement of fall sports, we will devote our full attention to ensuring our student-athletes can have the most meaningful experience which they rightly deserve.”
The news, which comes less than one week after players around the league began posting about wanting more frequent testing and eligibility assurances, is not much of a surprise for anyone that has been following the situation closely. Having said that, though, the total loss of revenue — particularly if the Rams cannot go this spring — has a chance to be pretty crippling to CSU’s athletic department as a whole.
As Parker mentioned in his most recent press availability, CSU is not one of the programs that gets the benefit of a lucrative TV deal like the SEC, ACC, Big-10, etc., but it’s also no secret that football is the breadwinner of the athletic department. And without it, potential budget cuts, salary reductions, and even layoffs could be looming.
If there’s any benefit to this situation, it’s that CSU no longer has to worry about the added pressure of trying to complete its investigation before the start of training camp. But that does little to comfort the die-hard fans that normally watch every second of Rams football in the fall.
