SAN BRUNO, Calif. --- The West Coast Conference has postponed all 2020 NCAA fall sports seasons, the league office announced on Thursday. The WCC Presidents' Council, in consultation with the conference's 10 athletic directors and Commissioner Gloria Nevarez, made the decision following several weeks of thorough analysis and discussion.  

The postponement will impact University of Portland men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball and men's and women's cross country. The conference intends to explore various models for conducting postponed fall sports in the spring of 2021. Discussions involving scheduling models, gameday safety protocols and a timeline for WCC competition are ongoing and will be shared at the appropriate time.

The WCC will not prohibit member institutions to individually determine whether to participate in non-conference fall competition or events as they deem appropriate. 

The decision does not impact the 2020-21 WCC men's and women's basketball seasons scheduled for the winter.

"We empathize with our student-athletes," said Nevarez. "This is a difficult decision, but it is the responsible decision based on the available information associated with conducting competition in the current environment. WCC programs compete for national titles and we never want to take these opportunities away. However, health and safety will always be paramount in guiding our decisions. We must ensure our student-athletes have a safe environment to compete and meet the NCAA's guidelines for Resocialization of Collegiate Sport, along with current federal, state and local health and safety measures in place at each member institution. We are committed to providing the safeguards to conduct a men's and women's basketball season this winter. We want to get back to celebrating the tremendous achievements of our programs as soon as we can, but we must first ensure we can compete in a safe manner."
 
"This decision is unequivocally the right one as there was no path forward to start seasons in a safe manner on September 24," said Portland Vice President for Athletics Scott Leykam. "Here at Portland we have implemented many advanced safety measures to ensure student-athletes and staff on campus can train in the safest environment possible and we will continue to follow NCAA and WCC guidelines in this regard options going forward."

University of Portland previously announced that the Fall 2020 Semester would be conducted almost exclusively online beginning on August 24 and residence halls would be closed with exceptions provided in certain circumstances.

Fans that have purchased tickets for cancelled events can contact the Pilot Box Office at 503-943-7525 regarding credits, refunds or other options.

Stay tuned to PortlandPilots.com for updates specific to University of Portland Athletics.