NCAA Leaves Return To Sports Decision To School Presidents & Conference Commissioners

TEMPE, ARIZONA - NOVEMBER 23: Wide receiver Johnny Johnson III #3 of the Oregon Ducks scores on a 17 yard touchdown reception against the Arizona State Sun Devils during the second half of the NCAAF game at Sun Devil Stadium on November 23, 2019 in Tempe, Arizona. The Sun Devils defeated the Ducks 31-28.

On Tuesday, NCAA president Mark Emmert said that the NCAA won’t mandate or oversee a uniform return to college sports.

Emmert has decided to leave the decision making up to state officials and university presidents.

Since the NCAA came to a stop in mid-March, there has been no timetable or discussion about a possible return to college sports. Emmert has said that the return to college sports is not his to determine.

“Normally, there’s an agreed-upon start date for every sport, every season, but under these circumstances, now that’s all been derailed by the pandemic. It won’t be the conferences that can do that either. It will be the local and state health officials that say whether or not you can open and play football with fans.”

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While many different conferences and football coaches have spoken on their hopes to return to the football season, the PAC-12 issued a statement on Wednesday this week saying their collective universities would make their own decisions on when student-athletes were safe to return.

Emmert said that decisions such as this are localized and that campuses need to indepentedly determine whether it is safe to bring students back to play sports.

“The NCCA doesn’t mandate that, nor should it,” he said. “The schools themselves have to make those decisions.”

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has chimed in on the matter, saying that the NCAA doesn’t oversee the college football playoff. That responsibility is placed on the Football Oversight Committee.

“The Football Oversight Committee will have a role in putting a date on the calendar eventually, to say you can start some sort of return to play on this date, but that may be on three days’ notice,” he said.

Emmert has a formal call with all 32 Division I commissioners at least once a week, and has individual discussions with commissioners each and every day.

“Where we have direct control is of course over our championships, all 90 of those championships, and we’ll make sure those are conducted in a way that’s first and foremost safe for the students, for coaches, for fans, however that plays out,” he said. “We’ll support the conferences who make the decisions with the schools about what the conference schedules are going to look like, make whatever adjustments need to be made in the rules, to move seasons around so that we can accommodate all of the needs that are going to be popping up right now and recognizing this is going to play out in different ways in different parts of the country.”

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