NCAA president Mark Emmert says no fall Division I championships

Football is only Division I sport still currently proceeding towards a possible fall championship.

It's now official. There will be no Division I championships in any sport this fall with the current exception of football as the NCAA does not run the College Football Playoff. 

NCAA President Mark Emmert announced the news on Thursday, meaning sports like volleyball and soccer won't play for a title this fall.

"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.

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"We cannot, now at this point, have fall NCAA championships because there’s not enough schools participating," Emmert said. "The, board – the Board of Governors – also said if you don’t have half the schools playing a sport, you can’t have a legitimate championship. So we can’t (hold championships) in any Division I NCAA Championship sport now, which is everything other than FBS football that goes on in the fall. So sadly, tragically, that’s going to be the case this fall, full stop."

In better news for the sports that saw their championships cancelled, Emmert left open the door to play those championships down the road during the 2020-21 academic year.

"That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t and can’t turn towards winter and spring and say, ‘How can we create a legitimate championship for all those students?," Emmert said. "My staff’s been working hard and been talking to a lot of commissioners, all the commissioners – all 32 of them in DI – and there are ways to do this. I’m completely confident we can figure this out. If schools and conferences want to move forward and try and have (championships) – and more than half of them want to do it and that’s surely the indication right now – then let’s do it. We can use the fall as I said to keep kids healthy, keep them engaged with their coaches and athletic departments, focus on their academic success, work with them and let them practice and stay ready to play. Then let’s go compete at that time."

Emmert went on to mention that moving forward, as schedules are possibly adjusted, he wants to prioritize winter and spring sports that already saw their championships cancelled last season.

"We made that horrible, awful, but necessary choice to shut down (this past spring)," Emmert said. "We didn’t have Frozen Four, didn’t have Final Fours, didn’t have World Series in softball or baseball or track championships, lacrosse – we lost all that. We have to say first and foremost we’re going to protect those spaces. But then when we look at it and say if we modify the model, which we need to do anyway because of the virus, if we modify the model, shrink the bracket sizes, do everything in predetermined sites instead of running kids around the country, use predetermined sites, move towards bubbles or semi-bubble models in volleyball, let’s say, or soccer – there’s a way to do it. Will it be normal? Of course not. You’ll be playing a fall sport in spring. Will it create other conflicts and challenges? Of course. But is it doable? Yeah. It is doable and we want to do that. We want to, again, make it work for these students."

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