Florida Gulf Coast University will not play sports this fall.

The ASUN conference, which includes FGCU, announced Friday morning it has canceled athletics this semester because of concerns over the coronavirus. The announcement came after ASUN schoools’ athletic directors and presidents met Thursday.

A news release from the conference said the ASUN will try to move the fall sports to the spring. The sports whose championships are in the spring but also have fall competitions — men’s and women’s golf, swimming — also will not compete this semester.

“These decisions do not come lightly, however, our No. 1 priority as a conference and as an institution has been, and will always be, the well-being of our student-athletes,” FGCU athletic director Ken Kavanagh said in a statement from the school. “Certainly we have been doing everything within our power here at FGCU to make sure our student-athletes had a chance to compete this fall in a manner that put safety and their well-being first.

“We will now turn our attention to generating as best as possible an enjoyable opportunity for them to compete in the spring, while also making sure our winter and spring programs are also able to begin training as soon as they possibly can.”

FGCU has five sports teams that compete in the fall — men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball.

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The ASUN said postponing the fall season will not affect the winter sports schedules. The FGCU men’s and women’s basketball teams still are on schedule to begin in November, the school said.

On Thursday evening the NCAA announced that it will not host championships for the fall sports because of lack of participation. Most of the NCAA Division I conferences, including the ASUN, have canceled fall sports.

“Obviously this is a huge disappointment,” ASUN commissioner Ted Gumbart said in a news release. “Anyone who follows college sports understands the dynamics that brought us to this decision, but that doesn’t mean we like it.”

FGCU spring teams also lost most of their seasons when the NCAA and the ASUN canceled the remainder of athletics in 2019-20 following the initial outbreak of the coronavirus in March.

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NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a video posted on Twitter that the priority now is to save the winter and spring seasons in 2020-21, since those teams did not have championships last school year.

That includes the FGCU women’s basketball team, who were heavy favorites to win the ASUN championship and grab an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. However, the ASUN final was among the coronavirus casualties in March, canceled just three days before it was set to tip off.

Postponing fall sports cast doubt on FGCU’s women’s soccer and volleyball teams, two of the most successful programs recently. Both were eager to start 2020 after they had winning records last year but fell short in the postseason.

The volleyball team went 27-5 last season but lost at home in the ASUN championship and did not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Women’s soccer went 11-4-2 but fell in the conference semifinals on penalty kicks.

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“Our team was prepared for this possibility and knew that we would need to be flexible and adaptable based on the situation,” volleyball coach Matt Botsford said. “So, that is what we do. We shift gears and focus our attention on the growth and development of our team, absent of the road map we had grown accustomed to. That doesn’t make it hurt any less for these student-athletes, but it does allow us to refocus our energy on something positive.”

Added women’s soccer coach Jim Blankenship, who founded the program in 2007 and has never had a losing season: “It’s probably one of the toughest things as a coach to have to tell your team — that despite the work and dedication you’ve put in, something outside of your control is now taking away an opportunity.”

FGCU’s five fall sports have 24 seniors combined who are entering their final seasons of eligibility. Three of them graduated from Southwest Florida high schools: soccer players Syniah Clark (Ida Baker) and Zoey Spitzer (Gulf Coast), and volleyball player Alayna Ryan (Fort Myers).

The NCAA’s Division I Council recently recommended that athletes get their eligibility extended.