Former LSU President F. King Alexander Says SEC Not Living in 'Reality'
F. King Alexander served as LSU's president for six years and on Thursday revealed his thoughts on the SEC continuing to push forward with a college football season. Alexander, who now serves as president at Pac-12 university Oregon State, believes the SEC isn't living in "reality" as it marches toward a Sept. 26 kickoff date.
“Logistically and realistically, it’s quite a gamble on their part, a big gamble,” Alexander said in an interview with the Oregonian. “There are serious consequences if they lose.”
The college athletics world is currently in shambles as 54 universities across the country won't be competing in any fall sports this fall. It's what prompted the NCAA on Thursday to cancel all fall championships. It's important to note that this decision does not affect FBS college football and the CFP championship.
"The board of governors also established if you don't have half of the schools playing a sport, you can't have a legitimate championship," NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a video posted on the NCAA's Twitter feed. "We can't in any Division I NCAA championship sport now, which is everything other than FBS football that goes on in the fall. Sadly, tragically, that's going to be the case this fall, full stop."
As it stands, six FBS conferences are moving forward with a football season after the cancellation of all other fall sports. Football is the money maker as we all know, the sport that keeps most others in business.
"Does the fall proceed with only six FBS conferences playing football and no one else doing anything?” one Group of Five athletic director asked SI national writers Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger. “That’s where we are."
The six remaining conferences will be fueled by what the SEC, ACC and Big-12 decide to do moving forward. ACC leaders met on Thursday and made the final decision to move ahead with a 2020 fall schedule.
Now those decisions were made before the NCAA effectively decided to do away with fall championships. It's not currently known what the conferences will do after that decision was handed down late Thursday afternoon.
It's already been reported by Sports Illustrated that the Power 5 conferences could elect to set up its own championships, alluding to a potential breakaway from the NCAA. The decision from the NCAA on Thursday was another one that enraged athletic directors across the country.
“To learn more about the NCAA cancelling fall championships everyone has to tune in to a social TV show tonight at 7 p.m.?” An AD complained in Dellenger and Forde's piece. “Tens of thousands of student-athletes just had the rug pulled out from under them and the NCAA is looking for better social ratings? Tone deaf doesn’t quite cut it.
“Among our frustrations with the NCAA is that they keep making announcements like this without having first decided the myriad of associated issues involving eligibility, scholarship limits, competition seasons, roster size, etc.” said one Power-5 AD. “That is an enormous disservice to the students.”
What happens from here on out is anybody's guess. The six conferences could elect to move forward with all sports--despite there being no chance of a national champion—or just football, which would save athletic departments from losing tens of millions of dollars.
The next few weeks will be about analyzing how the return of students to campus will cause any potential outbreaks. If that happens, the decision could become a lot clearer for the SEC, ACC and Big-12.
