According to Zach Barnett of Football Scoops, NCAA President Mark Emmert told congress they could shorten the college football season. In Barnett’s article he stated what Emmert participated in conference call with other commissioners.
NCAA president Mark Emmert told Congressional leaders that the upcoming college football season could be shortened and some schools may not play.
Emmert participated in a call Wednesday alongside commissioners of the NFL, NHL, PGA and NASCAR, which served to update the White House’s re-opening task force on various sports return-to-play plans.
In the call, Emmert said the season could be shortened where, at the FBS level, conference championship games are played by Thanksgiving, according to the New York Times. This change would shorted the regular season by two weeks; it would also mirror the schedule many universities have adopted, where the fall semester will begin on time but in-person instruction will end at the Thanksgiving break.
The biggest problem with the comments from Emmert is that he doesn’t have the power to take such a stance. While he can rule over the NCAA March Madness tournaments, football is a completely different animal. When it comes to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) or Division I, it is the conference commissioners who run the college football landscape.
Essentially the Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has more power than Emmert. All scheduling is done at the collegiate level with schools allowed to schedule their own non-conference opponents and the conference decides on their remaining schedule.
In the Barnett piece, he goes on to state that the College Football Playoff committee is expecting to play a full schedule in 2020.