PSUAC cancels fall and winter athletic seasons

The athletic programs in the Penn State University Athletic Conference, including Penn State New Kensington, Beaver, Fayette, Greater Allegheny and Shenango, continue to come to terms with Friday’s decision by the conference’s executive committee to cancel all intercollegiate athletics competition for men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball for the 2020-21 academic year.

The Conference Office said it continued to monitor university, federal, state and national governing body guidelines as well as trends in other conferences throughout the nation before arriving at its decision.

The vote by the executive committee was unanimous.

The PSUAC, under similar circumstances in the fall, had postponed fall and winter sports competition to the spring semester.

“The past few months have created many challenging decisions for our Executive Committee and Council of Athletic Directors,” Director of Commonwealth Campus athletics Maureen Cooper said in a statement shortly after the vote was completed.

“We have looked at multiple options to preserve intercollegiate athletics competition, but the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff has always been the most important aspect in our discussion and was the determining factor in this decision.”

PSUAC commissioner Ryan Ehrie added that all involved, including chancellors, athletic directors and the conference office, never stopped trying to find ways to hold fall and winter athletic competition.

“This decision has not been made lightly, and we empathize with all of our student-athletes and coaches who will miss out on intercollegiate participation in sports they love,” Ehrie said.

“However, we look forward to preserving some level of experience for our fall and winter student-athletes through their campus athletic departments.”

The conference office, in conjunction with the PSUAC Executive Committee and Council of Athletic Directors, plans to gather in late January to discuss the status of the spring seasons for baseball, cross country, golf and softball.