NCAA Power Five Conferences commissioners held an emergency assembly on Sunday, and several media outlets report that high-level discussions are scheduled for early this week, resulting in the postponement or cancellation of all fall school sports, adding football, due to considerations about Covid-19, even though many of the most popular school football players turned to social media on Sunday night to express his preference for dressing this fall.
On Saturday, the Mid-American Conference became the first convention to postpone all of the fall sports scheduled for this season due to the coronavirus pandemic, and resources told ESPN that the postponement of the entire season is inevitable.
ESPN reports that the Big Ten is “ready to turn off its fall sports season, and sought to assess whether commissioners and college presidents from other Power Five meetings would join them.”
Late Sunday night, some of the biggest names in school football from the five primary meetings used Twitter to express their preference for competing, airing a joint just before midnight that began: “We all have to play football this season.”
Players involved in the ensemble come with Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence (a Heisman favorite and first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft), Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields and Alabama RB Najee Harris.
Students-athletes described protocols that will need to be put in place to ensure a safe environment in the future, adding the status quo of “mandatory universal fitness and protection procedures and protocols to help college athletes opposed Covid-19. “
Interestingly, the players also stated that they sought to pursue a long-term purpose of creating an arrangement of school football players, which would have a dramatic and far-reaching effect on the long term of school sports.
The United States took another dark step over the weekend, surpassing five million cases of coronavirus, resulting in at least 162,000 deaths. Several professional sports leagues in the United States, such as the National Basketball Association and Major League Soccer, appear to have controlled to protect their players from the virus so far. However, NBA and MLS players have been limited to bubble campuses, greatly reducing the chances of spreading infections. On the other hand, the primary league baseball season has been hampered by multiple epidemics. In addition to football, other fall school sports include men’s and women’s football, box hockey and women’s volleyball. According to various media reports, if the NCAA fall football season is postponed, the purpose would be to plan to play the season in the spring. “I don’t know why we’re looking to push to play in the fall. It makes more sense to me to play alone in the spring,” ESPN told ESPN, a Power Five athletic director.
$10.3 billion: The total profit generated through all NCAA sports departments in 2018, according to the NCAA’s annual monetary report.
“No one has talked about a plan if the season is canceled,” West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons, who is the chairman of the football oversight committee, told ESPN. “If canceled, we will have to be able to give a transparent address at that time, to say, “We don’t know.”
President Donald Trump tweeted Monday afternoon that “student-athletes have worked too hard to have their season canceled.” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) tweeted that “the United States wants school football.”
Sources: Power five Football Conferences on Football Without Fall (ESPN)
Five college sports force executives talk about adjournment of football season amid concerns about coronavirus, reports (CNN)
#WeWantToPlay: The best football players in the school ask for a player fix (USA Today)
Full policy and updates on coronavirus
I’m a Forbes reporter in New York and I cover sports, politics and business. Do not hesitate to contact me by email (tsbeer7 gmail.com) or Twitter.
I’m a Forbes reporter in New York and I cover sports, politics and business. Please contact me by email (tsbeer7 gmail.com) or Twitter (@TommyBeer).