Penn State branch campuses shut down fall sports

Another lower level college conference is bagging fall sports.

The Penn State University Athletic Conference, home to 14 Penn State branch campuses, announced Friday it is postponing fall athletics — soccer, cross country, golf and women’s volleyball — due to the covid-19 pandemic.

The decision, made by the conference’s executive council, was a unanimous vote.

“A decision on winter and spring sports competition will be made at a later date,” the PSUAC said in a news release.

“We have been closely monitoring the national landscape regarding intercollegiate athletics on smaller campuses as well as the developments related to the coronavirus and its impact on our students at all Penn State campuses for the fall semester,” said Penn State Director of Commonwealth Campus Athletics, Maureen Cooper. “The health and safety of our student-athletes is first and foremost and developing safety protocols has been the utmost priority the last several months, but unfortunately, there are too many factors that prohibit the PSUAC and its campuses from safely delivering a competitive atmosphere that our student-athletes deserve.”

The PSUAC will look at the possibility of playing fall sports in the spring.

The branch campuses in the PSUAC are Beaver, Brandywine, DuBois, Fayette, Hazleton, Greater Allegheny, Lehigh Valley, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Scranton, Schuylkill, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, and York.

Other area sub-Division I conferences to postpone most fall sports include the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (Division II), the Presidents Athletic Conference and the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Individual schools in the region to postpone fall sports individually are Carnegie Mellon and Pitt-Greensburg.

In most cases, conferences are considering playing fall sports in the spring.