/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5f316697fa1e59583397d7d4/0x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=4842&cropY1=245&cropY2=2969&w=1920&resize=1920,0&ssl=1 "NCAA Conferences Reportedly Discussed Cancelling Football Season, Though Athletes Say They Want To Play")
TOPLINE
Commissioners of the NCAA’s Power 5 conferences held an emergency meeting on Sunday, and multiple outlets are reporting that further high-level discussions are planned for early this week which is expected to lead to the postponement or cancellation of all fall college sports, including football, due to Covid-19 concerns, despite many of college football’s most popular players taking to social media on Sunday night to express their desire to suit up this fall.
Joe Burrow #9 of the LSU Tigers talks with Trevor Lawrence #16 of the Clemson Tigers after their … [+]
Getty Images
KEY FACTS
On Saturday, the Mid-American Conference became the first conference to postpone all fall sports scheduled this season due to the coronavirus pandemic, and sources told ESPN the postponement of the entire season appeared inevitable.
ESPN is reporting that the Big Ten is “ready to pull the plug on its fall sports season, and they wanted to gauge if commissioners and university presidents from the other Power 5 conferences will fall in line with them.”
Late Sunday night, some of the biggest names in college football, from all five major conferences, took to Twitter to express their desire to compete, releasing a joint statement just before midnight which began: “We all want to play football this season.”
The players involved in the formulation of the joint statement include Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence (a Heisman favorite and the projected top overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft), Ohio State QB Justin Fields, and Alabama RB Najee Harris.
The student-athletes outlined protocols they feel need to be put in place to ensure a safe environment moving forward, including establishing “universal mandated health and safety procedures and protocols to help college-athletes against Covid-19.”
Interestingly, the players also stated they wanted to pursue a long term goal of ultimately creating a college football players association, which would have a dramatic, wide-ranging impact on the future of scholastic sports.
Key Background:
The U.S. passed another grim milestone this weekend, topping 5 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which has resulted in at least 162,000 deaths. Multiple pro sports leagues in the U.S., such as the National Basketball Association and Major League Soccer, seem to have successfully shielded their players from the virus thus far. However, the NBA and MLS players have been confined to bubble campuses, which dramatically reduces the chances of infections spreading. On the other hand, Major League Baseball’s season has been hampered by multiple outbreaks. According to multiple outlets, if the NCAA’s fall football season is postponed, the goal would be to plan to play the season in the spring. “I don’t know why we are trying to push to play in the fall. It’s always made more sense to me to just play in the spring,” a Power 5 athletic director told ESPN.
Big Number:
$10.3 Billion: That was the total revenue generated among all NCAA athletics departments in 2018, according to the NCAA’s annual financial report.
Critical Quote:
“No one has talked about a plan if the season is canceled,” West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons, who is the chair of the Football Oversight Committee, told ESPN. “If it’s canceled, we need to be able to give clear direction at that time, as opposed to saying, ‘We don’t know.'”
Tangent:
Besides football, other fall collegiate sports include men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey, and women’s volleyball.
Further Reading:
Sources: Power 5 conferences talking about no fall football (ESPN)
#WeWantToPlay: Top college football players call for creation of players association (USA Today)
/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5f316697fa1e59583397d7d4/0x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=4842&cropY1=245&cropY2=2969&w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1&description=NCAA+Conferences+Reportedly+Discussed+Cancelling+Football+Season%2C+Though+Athletes+Say+They+Want+To+Play){kind=link}