NCAA: Uniformed Start to College Football Season Unlikely

On Friday night NCAA President Mark Emmert stated the unlikelihood of there being a uniformed start to college football in 2020.

NCAA President Mark Emmert spent a good portion of his Friday night discussing the outlook of the 2020 college football season as he and NCAA Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Brian Hainline appeared together for an interview that aired on the NCAA’s official Twitter account.

You can watch that video in full here and/or read the cliff-notes below.

The Highlights:

  • Emmert says it’s unlikely all schools will be ready to resume athletics at the same time
  • Emmert states the goal is for all teams to have an equal amount of preparation time before the season starts, something that could be thrown off by the variance of when each specific school opens
  • On the college football season potentially lacking a uniformed start date Emmert said: “I think we should assume that’s going to be the case”
  • Hainline stated there will be no national time when everyone can start pre-season activities
  • Emmert also made it crystal-clear that NCAA athletic events won’t be taking place on campus until students return to campus as well: β€œIf you don’t have students on campus, you don’t have student-athletes on campus,” he said. β€œThat 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.”