NCAA President Mark Emmert delivered a bleak update to the ongoing saga of continuing sports during this fall.
“We cannot now, at this point, have fall NCAA championships.”
Emmert made the statement early Thursday afternoon during a sit down discussion with Inside the NCAA. This does not include college football.
"We cannot, at this point, have fall NCAA championships."
NCAA President Mark Emmert discusses the latest developments in fall sports and looks ahead to winter and spring championships.
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The news comes two days after both the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences announced their plans to cancel all fall sports. Emmert says that the NCAA Board of Governors decided that because there are not enough schools participating. Emmert explained,
“If you don’t have half of the schools playing a sport you cannot have a legitimate championship, so we can’t in any division I NCAA championship sport now which is everything other than FBS football that goes on in the fall so sadly, tragically that’s going to be the case this fall. Full stop.”
As of now, the BIG 12, ACC, and SEC have all announced that they still intend on playing football this fall as each conference continues to carefully monitor the spread of COVID-19. If 3/5 Power 5 conferences continue to play football the CFB Playoff would continue.
What does this mean for other fall sports?
Emmert is hopeful they will resume in the spring, but says winter and spring sports will have first priority due to their championships being cancelled in March. A major development worth noting here is that Emmert mentions the NCAA is thinking of shrinking bracket sizes in winter and spring championships to best minimize the spread of the virus.
The NCAA President believes their current plan is doable, but it won’t happen without conflict along the way.
This interview is a segment featured on Inside the NCAA’s “Social Series.” The full episode will be published to the NCAA’s website Thursday night at 7 p.m. ET.