NCAA President Mark Emmert Announces No 2020 Fall Championships

As conferences debate whether or not they will play football, NCAA president Mark Emmert announced the cancellation fall championships and how to move forward.

As conferences debate whether or not they will play football, NCAA president Mark Emmert announced on Thursday the cancellation fall championships. 

"We cannont now, at this point, have fall NCAA championships because there are not enough schools participating," he said. "The Boards of Governors also said look, if you don't have half the schools playing a sports, you can't have a legitimate championship. We can't in every Division I sport now, which is everything other than FBS football, that goes on in the 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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Emmert also mentioned the possibility of playing fall sports championships in the spring. He admitted that there are some logistical issues to work out, obviously, but he believes it's feasible. 

"There are ways to do this. I’m confident we can figure this out. If schools and conferences want to move forward and try and have," he said. "...more than half want to do it. Let’s do it."

Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde reported earlier this month, that Power 5 leaders were exploring the possibility of hosting their own fall sports championships, the reason being to justify having a football season. 

"Multiple sources said part of the motivation for the Power 5 considering hosting its own fall Olympic sports seasons is to justify playing football, the revenue-driving sport for all athletic departments at that level," Forde wrote. "If all the other sports are canceled but football perseveres on its own, the optics would open up the schools to severe criticism. Thus, playing all fall sports would allow those schools to say that they are not uniquely subjecting football players to any risk."

The Southern Conference announced today that they would be postponing all fall sports, meaning no FCS school will be playing football this season. 

The Pac-12 also announced earlier this week that all sports would be postponed through the end of the calendar year, joining the Big 10 in Power 5 conferences to make that decision.