The shoes drop: Pac-12 & Big 10 postpone fall sports, including cross country...

Action in the 2019 Pac-12 cross country championship meet
in Monmouth, Oregon (Paul Merca photo)

The shoes dropped on the hopes of a cross country season at the Division I level this fall, as both the Pac-12 and Big 10 Conferences announced Tuesday the postponement of all fall sports, including football and cross country until the end of 2020.

In a release from the Pac-12, the conference's CEO Group voted unanimously to postpone all sports until the end of the 2020 calendar year due to ongoing health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Student-athletes impacted by the postponement will continue to have their scholarships guaranteed.  Additionally, the Pac-12 Conference strongly encourages that the NCAA grant students who opt out of competition this academic year an additional year of eligibility.  As part of their guaranteed scholarships, they will continue to have university support, including academic advising and tutoring, among other support services.

“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.  “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.”

“Our athletic programs are a part of broader campuses in communities where in many cases the prevalence of COVID-19 is significant.  We will continue to monitor the situation and when conditions change we will be ready to explore all options to play the impacted sports in the new calendar year,” said Scott.

Last week, the Big Sky Conference, which includes Eastern Washington University, made the decision to postpone football to the spring, while delaying a decision on its other fall sports, including cross country.

Sources tell paulmerca.blogspot.com that a decision will be made by both the West Coast Conference (Gonzaga), and the Western Athletic Conference (Seattle University) on the status of their fall sports seasons no later than the end of the week.

UPDATE (10:20 AM, Wednesday 8/12/2020): According to a tweet from media partner Flotrack, if one of several conferences, including the Big Sky, West Coast Conference & Western Athletic Conference decides to postpone the cross country season, the NCAA Division I will hit the 50% threshold to cancel the national championship meet in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Cancellation Threshold:
Women: 7 teams away from 50%
Men: 9 teams away from 50% https://t.co/lRGrKDDTn1

— FloTrack (@FloTrack) August 12, 2020

Both the University of Washington and Washington State University issued statements regarding the postponement of the fall sports season.

Additionally, Washington director of track & cross country Maurica Powell & head track/cross country coach Andy Powell issued a joint statement Tuesday via the team's Twitter account:

#GoHuskies #Together 💪 pic.twitter.com/hATftRHAxV

— Washington Track & Field (@UWTrack) August 12, 2020

Whatever decisions the West Coast Conference and the Western Athletic Conference makes on the fall sports seasons will affect what the NCAA will do with the Division I cross country championships, currently scheduled for November 21st in Stillwater, Oklahoma. If less than 50 percent of the Division I schools have a season, the NCAA can most likely, pull the plug or delay the D1 championship meet to the spring.

The University of Washington was scheduled to host the NCAA Western Regional cross country meet on Friday November 13th. Seattle University is scheduled to host the Western Athletic Conference championship meet on October 31st.

The NCAA has already cancelled the 2020 Division II and III championship meets.

Assuming that the cross country season is moved to early 2021, and assuming that there is an indoor and an outdoor track season, the possibility of potentially competing in essentially three seasons between January and June 2021 (particularly with distance runners) could pose challenges in managing rosters and athletes for coaches, especially as it pertains to which championship season to peak the athlete (indoor, cross country and/or outdoor track).

NOTE: The Pac-12 Conference, Big 10 Conference, and the sports information offices of the University of Washington and Washington State University contributed to this report.

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