With each passing day as we await a return to college athletics, it seems that everyone has provided their take on whether or not a return is likely this fall. Recently NCAA Chief Medical Office Brian Hainline stated that we could have sports in the fall. Also the NCAA released their three phase plan on how sports could return to college campuses.
The NCAA President Mark Emmert recently spoke about the return to sports and it seems he and Big 12 Commissioner aren’t on the same page.
If you don’t have students on campus, you don’t have student-athletes on campus,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it has to be up and running in the full normal model, but you’ve got to treat the health and well-being of the athletes at least as much as the regular students. So if a school doesn’t reopen, then they’re not going to be playing sports. It’s really that simple. – NCAA President Mark Emmert
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby recently spoke with the Athletic about the situation and he believes that teams can in fact play even if operating online.
Bowlsby says "crowds may be a little bit soft, especially early in the season" as some fans are reluctant to pack stadiums. But he lists numerous diseases "that are still around" and they haven't paralyzed society. https://t.co/fo3qzaqk08
— G. Allan Taylor (@GAllanTaylor) May 7, 2020
So who exactly do you believe? Well if you ask Dan Wolken of USA Today Sports then you should probably be prepared for chaos. Not that we aren’t already under said chaos at this point in time.
It is, fundamentally, a sport run by a committee of bureaucrats with little incentive to do anything but advance whatever is in the perceived competitive and financial interests of their conferences. While the NCAA manages certain elements, like the rules of play and recruiting restrictions, most of the important dynamics for FBS run through the conferences. – Dan Wolken
With teams such as Iowa of the Big Ten Conference and Arkansas of the vaunted Southeastern Conference openly discussing their return to football, it is hard to imagine that football won’t be played in some sort of capacity. Like Dan said, it’s the conferences that run NCAA football. While that might be an opinion, there is little out there that disproves that thought.