NCAA Meeting to Discuss Fall Championships

ANAHEIM, CA – The NCAA Board of Governors will meet this Friday to talk fall sports, and to potentially decide whether fall Championships will be played, postponed, or cancelled altogether. An announcement could be made as early as Friday afternoon, or as late as the first week of August.
The meeting is not on the Board’s calendar, and its agenda is not on the NCAA Board of Governors’ website. According to The Athletic, the Board of Governors also met last week, and there is no published agenda or post-meeting report for that meeting, either. The next regularly scheduled meeting is set to take place in the first week of August.
Many have wondered if collegiate fall sports will be played at all. NCAA President Mark Emmert still isn’t sure. “I get asked every day if college sports will return this fall. The consensus opinion among our health advisers is significant change must occur for that to happen,” Emmert said Wednesday, while testifying during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that was mostly focused on the issue of allowing student athletes to monetize their reputations through endorsements and deals.
The NCAA has no authority to postpone or cancel specific seasons, a decision that would be up to individual schools or their conferences. But canceling or postponing NCAA championships could increase pressure for conferences to call off sports — including at the top-tier of college football, where Bowl Subdivision conferences are weighing options.
The board has the power to call off NCAA championship events in fall sports such as soccer, women’s volleyball and lower-division football, including the second tier of Division I known as the Championship Subdivision. The board’s impending decision on fall sports championships could also put pressure on the one postseason the NCAA doesn’t govern – Division I football bowl games. The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) creates the playoff and bowl system outside NCAA oversight.
Already, Division II UNK has announced it will split fall sports seasons — including football — between the fall and spring.
Any postponement or cancellation of fall sports postseasons will affect Omaha, which is scheduled to host the NCAA Final Four for volleyball tournament on Dec. 17 and 19. Given the popularity of volleyball in Nebraska, and the possibility that Nebraska or Creighton could make the Final Four, it’s a popular – money making – event every time it rolls into the city.
Already in 2020, Omaha has lost sports releated revenue into the multi-millions. In the Spring, the NCAA cancelled March Madness, costing the city the first- and second-round games of the NCAA basketball tournament. The 2020 College World Series was also cancelled, resulting in a major loss of summer revenue.