BOISE -- The Big Sky Conference has canceled the remainder of its 2020 basketball tournaments, beginning with the men’s quarterfinals scheduled for Thursday, the conference office announced Thursday.

The Big Sky Presidents’ Council convened Thursday morning and voted to move forward in this manner.

“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. “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.

“We would be remiss not to acknowledge all of our local partners who helped us increase the interest in and attendance at our tournament this year, and we look forward to welcoming those fans back when we return to Boise in March 2021.”

The Big Sky is one of many conferences around the country to canceled its basketball tournaments because of the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday, the NCAA announced that this year's Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments will be played without fans in attendance.

Because no Big Sky tournament champions will be crowned and no automatic NCAA Tournament berths awarded, the conference will send its two highest-remaining tournament seeds -- No. 1 Eastern Washington for the men and No. 1 Montana State for the women -- to the NCAA Tournament, should it go on as scheduled.

The Idaho State men were scheduled to play in the tournament quarterfinals Thursday night against Montana. The Bengals, seeded 11th at the 11-team tournament, beat No. 6 Northern Arizona in Wednesday's first round for the program's first postseason win since 2009.

The ISU women lost to Idaho in Wednesday's semifinals, ending their chances at an NCAA Tournament berth. But they are still eligible for a lower-tier postseason tournament, if those go on as scheduled.

The Big Sky and CenturyLink Arena will announce a refund policy soon and will contact fans who purchased tickets for the games that have been cancelled.