NCAA rules out fall championships as FCS conferences postpone
As the final FCS domino fell on Thursday, NCAA president Mark Emmert acknowledged the inevitable.
There will be no NCAA championships for fall sports in 2020.
Emmert addressed the issue in a video released by the NCAA Thursday afternoon.
‘There’s not enough schools’
“We cannot now, at this point, have fall NCAA championships,” Emmert said. “Because there’s not enough schools participating.
“The board of governors also said, ‘Look, if you don’t have half of the schools playing a sport, you can’t have a legitimate championship.’ So we can’t in any Division I NCAA championship sport which is everything other than FBS 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.
Hear more on the NCAA Social Series TONIGHT at 7 p.m. ET from @NCAA. pic.twitter.com/DpuIdqQrhj— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) August 13, 2020
Fall sports in the spring?
Emmert didn’t rule out holding championships for fall sports in the winter or spring while urging schools and conferences to conduct those sports at a later date. He suggested that if half the schools participate, the NCAA could crown legitimate champions.
He also said that fall sports will not receive priority over winter and spring sports, which saw their championships and seasons canceled at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments were among the first sports casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Emmert’s announcement arrived as the Ohio Valley Conference reportedly made plans to postpone its fall sports schedule. The OVC would be the 13th and final FCS conference to announce that it won’t conduct fall sports as scheduled.
FBS football season, CFP not settled
The fate of the FBS football season as a whole remains in limbo. Several conference have postponed or canceled their football seasons, including the Big Ten and Pac-12.
The ACC, SEC and Big 12 maintain hope that they can put together a semblance of a fall football season.
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