UMAC latest conference to postpone football season

The Westminster Blue Jays football season will be pushed back to spring 2021, the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference announced in a press release Thursday.

Westminster is a member of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, but the Blue Jays are an associate member of the UMAC for football.

"Per directive of the Council of Presidents and Chancellors, the UMAC will pursue opportunities to provide conference competition in the spring for the fall sports of football, men's and women's soccer and volleyball," the conference said in a press release.

"UMAC institutions remain focused on providing meaningful experiences for all student-athletes in the fall of 2020 which could include opportunities for practice, small-group training, skill development, strength and conditioning and leadership programming."

Westminster's 2020 schedule consisted of two non-conference games and eight games against UMAC opponents: Crown (Minn.), Greenville (Ill.), Iowa Wesleyan, Martin Luther (Minn.), Minnesota Morris, Northwestern (Minn.) and St. Scholastica (Minn.). Westminster had a home-and-home series slated against Greenville.

The Blue Jays already had their Sept. 12 game at Illinois College canceled earlier this week. Illinois College is a member of the Midwest Conference, which suspended all athletic competition through the rest of 2020.

The only remaining game on the 2020 schedule for the Blue Jays is their Sept. 5 home opener against Nebraska Wesleyan. Although no formal announcement has been made regarding the cancellation of the game, Westminster announced Thursday its football season has been moved to the spring.

Earlier in the week, the SLIAC announced it was pushing back men's and women's soccer and women's volleyball to the spring season.

Men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf and men's and women's tennis are allowed to have limited competitions this fall, the conference added.