BOISE — Idaho State University was prepared to move forward with sports this spring.

That changed Thursday evening, when the Big Sky Conference announced its decision to suspend all spring sports until further notice.

The announcement was the latest in a seemingly never-ending nationwide sweep of similar decisions made Wednesday and Thursday in light of the coronavirus pandemic. The NCAA canceled this year’s men’s and women’s Division I basketball championships, as well as all remaining winter and spring national championship events, and professional American sports leagues such as the NBA and NHL suspended their seasons.

“The Big Sky Conference will suspend all intercollegiate competition for its member institutions’ teams that participate in spring sports until further notice,” reads a Big Sky-issued press release. “The Big Sky Presidents’ Council made this decision on Thursday with the health and well-being of its student-athletes in mind. The Presidents’ Council will monitor the situation and reassess at a later date this spring.”

Nearby athletics programs at Brigham Young University, Utah State University, the University of Utah and Boise State University also had their spring sports seasons canceled or suspended by their respective conferences.

Earlier Thursday, the Big Sky canceled the final three days of its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, which were being held at CenturyLink Arena in Boise.

The Bengals men’s basketball team was scheduled to play Montana on Thursday night in the tournament quarterfinals. Seeded 11th in the 11-team tournament, ISU upset No. 6 Northern Arizona in Wednesday’s first round for the program’s first postseason win since 2009.

ISU Athletic Director Pauline Thiros informed the team of the Big Sky’s decision Thursday morning after the team returned from its shootaround session. Head coach Ryan Looney was not available for comment Thursday.

“There was no doubt an air of disappointment when we delivered that news to the team,” Thiros said.

“They feel confident and they feel great in the way that we’ve been playing, and they were encouraged to continue to see what we could accomplish in the tournament.

“At the time they returned to the hotel, they were ready to play tonight.”

The ISU women’s basketball team lost to Idaho in Wednesday’s semifinals.

Many college basketball conferences began canceling their tournaments, or banning fans from the games, on Wednesday. The Big Sky’s tournaments, which started Monday, went on as scheduled through Wednesday night’s games with fans in the stands.

But the Big Sky Presidents’ Council convened Thursday morning and voted to cancel the remaining three days of the tournament.

The Big Sky and CenturyLink Arena will announce a refund policy soon and will contact fans who purchased tickets for the games that were canceled, according to the Big Sky.

“This decision was not made lightly, as we know how meaningful our basketball championships is to our student-athletes, coaches, alumni and fans,” Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill said in a press release. “After consulting with medical experts, local authorities and the leadership of our institutions, we feel that this decision is prudent given the health and well-being of all involved.”

A few hours later, the NCAA announced the cancelation of this year’s men’s and women’s basketball national championship tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring national championship tournaments.

That decision directly impacted ISU track and field star Treyshon Malone, who was preparing for the indoor track and field national championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when the NCAA announced its decision.

Malone won Big Sky indoor championships in the long jump, 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash this season, qualifying for indoor nationals in the long jump — ISU’s first indoor nationals qualifier since 2011.

“Everyone was very upset. You could tell. It was just heartbreaking,” Malone said Thursday. “Everyone that made it and all the athletes that made it and the seniors that made it are very heartbroken.”

Malone also competes in outdoor track and field during the spring. So Thursday’s announcement that all Big Sky spring sports are suspended gave Malone an unwanted double whammy of bad news.

“I’m really sad that this is how the senior season has to end for me and seniors around the nation and teams that didn’t even get to start their season,” Malone said. “I know everybody is upset and just sad right now and I’m one of those people.”

ISU’s spring sports include outdoor men’s and women’s track and field, softball, women’s golf, and men’s and women’s tennis.

“I don’t recall anything quite to this scale,” Thiros said. “... I think that you can look at it one of two ways: on one side, there are a lot of people who are disappointed, but on the other side, it’s the responsible thing to do to create the social distancing that people are going for and flatten that curve of the weight on the healthcare system and just hope to manage this issue responsibly over the next weeks.”