Although the prospects of playing fall sports in the spring are still iffy, the NCAA on Friday made a move signifying it’s actively trying to pull it off.

According to a release from the association, Division I will work toward “hosting scaled back fall championships in the spring,” a ruling determined by the Division I Board of Directors, which followed a recommendation made Wednesday by the NCAA’s Division I Council.

The council’s decision was made based on the fact more than 50 percent of schools participating in each fall postseason had either canceled or postponed their fall seasons.

“We want to provide opportunities for student-athletes whenever possible,” said acting board chairwoman Denise Trauth, the president at Texas State. “We understand it will be complicated and different, and we’re not certain how it will look. But we believe it’s important to try to give students that championship experience.”

The Big Sky and Pac-12 conferences — where Idaho and Washington State play, respectively — elected earlier this month to not go ahead with fall sports seasons.

The Pac-12 hasn’t commited to fall sports seasons in the spring, but the Big Sky has made that premise its plan, albeit an uncertain one.

“We still, at this point in time, have not had full-on football practice because we’re still following the protocols and obviously we’re not playing until the spring — keeping my fingers crossed that we are,” UI athletic director Terry Gawlik said Wednesday during a luncheon meeting put on by the Moscow Chamber of Commerce. “We’re doing everything possible to make sure that we can have seasons for our athletes, but it’s all gonna come down to: ‘Well, are other schools doing that?’ ”

The Big Sky originally left the door open on potentially scheduling fall nonconference football games, but abandoned the thought Aug. 13. There still are some teams in the Football Championship Subdivision — namely from the Missouri Valley, Southern, Big South and Ohio Valley conferences — looking to play nonleague games in the fall.

But with the NCAA’s ruling, an attempt will be made to schedule championships in the spring for every fall sport. Fall-only sports at Idaho and Wazzu include football, women’s soccer, volleyball and cross country. If nothing changes, however, Cougar football most likely will not have a postseason if it were to play in the spring — the NCAA does not hold power over the Football Bowl Subdivision’s postseason, which is by all appearances still scheduled to happen in late 2020.

Six FBS conferences out of 10 reportedly are moving ahead with football seasons this fall, including the American, Atlantic Coast Conference, Conference USA, Big 12, Southeastern and Sun Belt. Notre Dame is playing an ACC schedule, and BYU as an independent.

The NCAA also made clear its intentions to preserve athletic opportunities for winter and spring sports, which might create issues considering a number of cross country athletes compete in track and field during the spring.

Gawlik acknowledged Wednesday it’s most likely UI will play only in-conference if there is a spring season in 2021. But the NCAA’s ruling presumably opens up more possibilities for nonconference scheduling, as it represents the organization setting in motion plans for a start.

“The coaches in some respects are driving some of my staff crazy, because they want to know, they want answers,” Gawlik said. “And we don’t have all the answers. So, we’re still working through all this, and a lot of it is still up in the air.”

Fall championships, of course, will only be permitted if they can be conducted safely and in accordance with federal, state and local health guidelines. Gawlik has advocated for mandated health protocols on an NCAA-wide basis.

A decision on bracket sizes and logistics of the postseasons will be ironed out by the board in the future.

Colton Clark may be reached at cclark@lmtribune.com, on Twitter @ClarkTrib or by phone at (208) 848-2260.