College football’s fate could be decided when the NCAA votes on fall championships
TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati believes it’s too early for the NCAA to make a decision on fall sports championships.
But college sports’ governing body is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to postpone or cancel 22 NCAA fall sports championships. Those championships include soccer, women’s volleyball and FCS football.
Major college football, including the College Football Playoff and bowl games, are a separate entity run by the conferences and technically would not be subject to whatever decision the NCAA makes.
But if the NCAA determines it isn’t safe for fall championships, some of which wouldn’t be held until November and December, how could conferences justify playing major college football in the months beforehand? Or even starting men’s and women’s basketball at the same time those fall sports championships are scheduled to be played?
“At this point, I believe it is too early to make that call on delays or cancellations,” Donati told the Star-Telegram. “We have a well thought out plan that has been developed by numerous medical professionals and health experts to proceed cautiously so that student-athletes get to play. If the championships are canceled, it sets a tough precedent to get yourself out of. Can you go forward with football and men’s and women’s basketball? Hard to say.
“It just creates a tougher environment to jump-start sports if you cast your line out there assuming it will not be safe in November or December. I sincerely hope that is not the case. It is not fair to the student-athletes who are working hard to compete this fall. They deserve an opportunity to start competition with the collective plans we have put in place.”
Just a few months ago the NCAA essentially forced the hands of conferences when it canceled March Madness and spring sports championships such as the College World Series on March 12. The conferences could have opted to keep the spring sports regular season intact with teams competing for regular-season and postseason conference championships.
However, once the NCAA canceled the spring championships, conferences shortly followed the lead and canceled regular seasons and postseason tournaments.
That would be the most plausible scenario to unfold should the NCAA’s board of governors scrap its fall sports championships on Tuesday.
NCAA president Mark Emmert told ESPN this week that he remains “very concerned” about playing fall sports amid the pandemic. Emmert believes a delayed start and shortened schedule would “make sense” for fall sports.
That mindset appears to have been embraced by some conferences. The SEC announced plans Thursday to start its season on Sept. 26 with a 10-game, conference-only schedule. The Pac-12 will start no earlier than Sept. 19 and also go to a conference-only model. But a few conferences are going ahead with plans of earlier starts.
Big 12 schools, for instance, are preparing for a possible Aug. 29 start date. (TCU is scheduled to start its fall camp today). The league hasn’t made a decision on what scheduling model to proceed with going forward either. If a 12-game season is no longer realistic or feasible, the league could go to a conference-only nine-game schedule or a 10-game schedule with a “plus-one” model to include the nine conference games and one non-conference matchup.
The Big Ten is looking at Sept. 5 start with conference-only play, while the ACC is the week of Sept. 7 with what will likely be a conference-only model.
Delaying the season such as the SEC has done would allow colleges to observe how professional sports are handling games and various situations, such as Major League Baseball with the Miami Marlins’ recent outbreak of COVID-19 cases.
As far as football, a start date in late September would allow colleges to see how the NFL is going about playing games. That had been the hope all along until the NFL canceled its preseason.
That’s what Emmert emphasized in his interview with ESPN.
“You get to learn a lot from what’s going on with professional sports,” he said. “We get to see how the testing protocols emerge and how that can be more effective, especially if we can get antigen testing going, for keeping track of the virus on campuses. The fact a delay could provide us with time to do all that could be very, very useful.
“Also, the move to a smaller number of games can be really helpful because you’ve got bigger breaks between games then, and you could provide flexibility around schedules. ... I think having fewer contests and doing them over a delayed period of time could be very, very helpful.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
