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Big Sky Conference to cancel fall football season, putting Ed McCaffrey era at Northern Colorado on hold, according to reports

The Ed McCaffrey era at Northern Colorado may be on hold — possibly until next year.

The Big Sky Conference decided Thursday afternoon to cancel its fall football season, according to multiple reports. The move would likely push back the first-year Bears head coach’s debut until 2021, with a report from The State Hornet that quotes Sacramento State President Robert Nelson indicating it would be moved to the spring.

The conference has yet to announce the news. But if the reports are correct, it would likely extinguish whatever hope remained of UNC playing Colorado State in Fort Collins this fall. The schools were originally scheduled to meet Sept. 19 at Canvas Stadium, but the Mountain West’s decision earlier this week to postpone fall sports until the week of Sept. 26 meant it would have to be moved.

The Bears’ first opponent of the 2020 schedule, Fort Lewis on Sept. 5, will now be playing football in the spring after the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference announced Thursday it was moving its season. The second, McNeese State on Sept. 12, plays in a conference that previously vowed to play its full season.

Northern Colorado hired McCaffrey last December, replacing Earnest Collins Jr., who was let go after going 28-72 in nine seasons with the Bears. The hiring of the former Broncos great and Valor Christian coach stoked excitement in Greeley, with the announcement coming just days after CSU hired Steve Addazio to run its football program.