At least half of college football seems determined to play this fall. However, the best team on this year’s college gridiron might only hoist a participation trophy at the end of the year.
According to NCAA President Mark Emmert, as of now, there will be no championships awarded to this year’s fall sports participants due to the fact that half of the conference’s aren’t playing.
And yes, that includes football.
“We cannot, now at this point, have fall NCAA Championships because there’s not enough schools participating,” Emmert said during a NCAA Social Series on Thursday. “The Board of Governors also said, ‘look if you don’t have half the schools playing the sport you can’t have a legitimate championship.”
Emmert has shifted his focus towards preparing college sports to resume in 2021. To that end, the league is experimenting with new safety protocols to make practices and exercise safe for collegiate athletes.
“There’s a way to do it. Will it be normal? Of course not, you’ll be playing fall sports in the spring. Will it create other challenges? Of course. But is it doable? Yeah, it is doable and we want to do that,” Emmert said. “We want to, again, make it work for these students.”
The Big 10 and the Pac-12 have already postponed this year’s college football season. The Big 12, ACC, and SEC, all hope to play football in the fall.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn