Following announcements from each of the Power Five conferences in regards to the upcoming season’s schedules. The Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 all going the conference only route while the Big 12 and ACC added one nonconference game. However, recently reports have put the entire NCAA college football season in real jeopardy.
Steve Berkowitz of USA TODAY Sports broke down the chances of a college football season in any capacity.
NCAA president Mark Emmert and the association’s chief medical officer, Brian Hainline, each made blunt assessments Friday night about schools’ ability to conduct fall sports amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“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.”
Their comments, during an interview on an NCAA Twitter site, came at the end of a tumultuous week for college sports. Among other developments, leaders of the association’s Division II and Division III schools canceled their groups’ NCAA fall sports championships. In addition, the NCAA Board of Governors, the association’s overall policy-making panel, implemented a series of requirements for schools that want to conduct fall sports.
But Emmert and Hainline did express hope that schools can find a way to comply with those mandates.
“We’re all really hopeful that can be done,” Emmert said. “Obviously, everybody wants to have kids back on campus. Everybody wants fall sports to return. But we can’t do it unless we can find a way to do it with minimized risk for these young people.”
The news isn’t something that is surprising but not what many want to hear across the country. Recently the MAC conference became the first FBS conference to cancel their upcoming football season according to USA TODAY Sports.
As for the University of Texas, Geoff Ketchum of Rivals states that it is a little different for the Longhorns.
Just texted with a high-ranking UT official. Was told that Texas/Big 12 view its decision as completely independent from other conferences (including Big 10). This source believes that the Big 12 and Texas will proceed forward as scheduled, knowing that unknowns exist "like MLB".
— Geoff Ketchum (@gkketch) August 8, 2020
That is some big news if it is indeed the case, it could be quite possible that the Big 12 Conference could be the only one operating come fall. It seems to be a bit farfetched but if there is any validity to it, there is hope.