The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa football season has been indefinitely postponed due to a recent decision made by the Mountain West (MW) Board of Directors on August 10. UH is a football-only member of the MW.
“The Mountain West Conference presidents are all focused on the health and wellbeing of our campus communities, and this pandemic has brought us all unique and unprecedented challenges,” UH President David Lassner said. “As a group, we could not see a path forward to conduct an athletic schedule this fall that we could be proud of. While today’s decision only affects Rainbow Warrior football at UH Mānoa, this is the same conclusion the Big West Conference reached for our other fall sports.”
The MW will explore the possibility of rescheduling fall sports competition, including the option of those sports competing in the spring.
“Since the start of the pandemic, our membership and staff have been working diligently to prepare for a fall sports season,” said MW Commissioner Craig Thompson. “We were hopeful we could carefully and responsibly conduct competition as originally scheduled with essential protocols in place. However, numerous external factors and unknowns outside our control made this difficult decision necessary. We will continue to navigate this pandemic together, overcome the obstacles and return to intercollegiate athletics at the earliest opportunity.”
“We support today’s very difficult decision by the Mountain West Conference,” said UH Mānoa Athletics Director David Matlin. “We know that it was a difficult choice, but made wholly in the best interest of our student-athletes, our school and our community. The absence of fall sports will be hard for us as a department, but more so for our student-athletes. We will continue to support them academically and mentally as we press forward with a safe path to get them back to a new normal of competition. Our athletic ʻohana will get through these rough waters together.”