NCAA takes no action for holding its fall sports

Heeding pleas for patience from college sports leaders, the NCAA Board of Governors held off on making any decisions about whether to hold championship events in fall sports during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Today, the Board of Governors and I agreed that we must continue to thoughtfully and aggressively monitor health conditions around the country and the im- plementation of the covid-19 guidelines we issued last week,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said Friday.

More than two dozen Division I conferences urged the NCAA’s highest governing body to delay a decision on fall championships until a majority of leagues determine whether to hold regular-season competition.

A letter from College Commissioners Association President and Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner Beth DeBauche, dated July 22, was sent to the board ahead of its Friday meeting. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

The CCA is comprised of commissioners from all 32

Division I conferences. The letter was supported by 27 conferences, including each Power Five conference and several that do not sponsor football. Five conferences abstained. The NCAA’s Division I football oversight committee made a similar plea for patience to the board in its own letter sent earlier this week.

In its letter, the CCA said it was “concerned to learn the board is contemplating taking action soon to cancel all fall season NCAA championships” because of concerns related to covid-19.

The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 4.

The CCA’s letter recommended delaying any decision on fall championships to allow more conferences to make their own decisions regarding regular-season play. The NCAA controls national championship events such as tournaments, playoffs and meets, but has no authority over what would be considered the regular season in any sport.

In major college football, the NCAA has no say: The conferences control the College Football Playoff and the bowls. The NCAA does sponsor playoffs in the second-tier of Division I football (FCS) and in Divisions II and III.

Still, calling off fall championships would send a message the NCAA doesn’t believe the events can be conducted with the best interest of athletes in mind and could call into question why conferences are moving move forward with plans to play football or other sports in the first semester.

Among the conferences that have already decided to postpone fall sports, with the hope of making them up in the second semester: the Ivy League, the Patriot League, the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Colonial Athletic Conference.

The 10 FBS conferences that make up Division I football’s top tier are in the process of adjusting schedules and hoping to play a regular season that has billions of dollars in media rights deals attached to it.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 have already announced they intend to play only conference games to better manage potential covid-19 disruptions. The Atlantic Coast Conference is considering a re-worked schedule that would include Notre Dame playing football as a member of a conference for the first time in program history.

Late Friday, Michigan State became the first school to publicly announce its entire football team has been placed in 14-day quarantine due to positive covid-19 tests for some players and staff members.

Emmert