Mountain West plans prompt start to basketball season amid pandemic. Here’s the latest
Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said on Thursday the conference still is targeting a November start for men’s and women’s basketball and winter sports seasons, despite the postponement of football and other fall sports.
“At this point we are still targeting a November start and certainly the winter sports are on the second burner and the first burner is certainly the continuation of what the NCAA is going to do with fall sports, are they going to jump those to the spring, etc.,” Thompson said.
“Right now, our plan is to start winter sports on time, but as we’ve found out in the last couple of weeks, the last couple days, this can change on a moment’s notice.”
Thompson said a decision on those seasons would have to be made by late September. Men’s and women’s basketball programs start practice in October, with games starting Nov. 10.
“I have the opportunity to serve on the Men’s Basketball Committee as well, representing the Mountain West in the NCAA structure and we’ve already begun those conversations,” Thompson said.
“There’s a lot of rumor and innuendo about playing a winter season starting in January, etc. Those are all premature. Certainly the Pac-12’s announcement, they have taken themselves out of play for November and December for men’s basketball, particularly. But that’s not a decision the Mountain West has made at this point.”
The Pac-12 on Tuesday postponed all fall sports competition through the end of the year due to coronavirus.
Fresno State has yet to bring fall or winter sports student-athletes back to campus for voluntary or mandatory workouts or practices.
Status of Mountain West fall sports
Thompson said the unknown played into the decision to postpone football, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country, its fall sports.
That decision came just five days after announcing a shortened fall season with football playing eight conference games and up to two non-conference games, with the West and Mountain division winners meeting in a conference championship game on one of three dates in December.
Women’s soccer and women’s volleyball were to play conference-only schedules with the champions determined by regular-season play. Plans for the cross country seasons were still being evaluated.
“What was the tipping point that changed in five or six days?” Thompson said. “There was really nothing other than the continued unknown. We heard about cardiac conditions and various studies.
“What’s really interesting to me is every Division I conference, and certainly the FBS conferences absolutely, have very active medical groups and those groups are uneven and unsure of their comparative notes to each other. Different studies show different things, and it’s amazing that intelligent people can reach different conclusions.”