NCAA has hope for fall sports, but says the path forward will be ‘difficult to say the least’

The NCAA addressed concerns surrounding fall sports in an interview this morning

We are nearing final judgments about college football this fall, and pieces of news today feel like we are trending in the wrong direction. In an interview on the NCAA Twitter site, NCAA president Mark Emmert and chief medical officer Brian Hainline had this to say. 

“This is going to be difficult, to say the least, going forward,” Emmert said.

Said Hainline: “I think we’re in a place that is exceptionally narrow. The boundaries are … there’s not a lot of places to move one way or the other. Almost everything would have to be perfectly aligned to continue moving forward.”

This has already been a wild day for college sports, as the MAC became the first FBS conference to cancel fall football and rumors are that the Big Ten is headed in that direction as well.

There is some direction forward for playing sports this fall, as Hainline laid out in the interview.

“It’s balancing what the national guidance says with what’s happening at your local level,” Hainline said, adding, “If everyone does everything right and we can’t control the virus, but we can control our behavior, we’ll say there is optimism within that narrow path.”

Today has been a difficult day for the future of college sports as we navigate beginning a season amidst a global pandemic. Expect more news to drop throughout the day surrounding the Big Ten and this fall.