With many college athletic conferences withdrawing from the 2020 fall sports season, the NCAA unsurprisingly made the announcement this past Thursday that there will be no NCAA-sponsored Division I championships for the upcoming 2020 fall season. 
Within the past few weeks, larger conferences, such as the Big Ten and  Pac-12 conferences, have announced the cancellation of their fall sports seasons due to COVID-19 health concerns. With the numbers of participating teams shrinking, the NCAA felt that a legitimate championship is not a possibility for this fall.

NCAA President, Mark Emmert, stated in a video announcement that “we cannot, at this point, have fall NCAA championships because there’s not enough schools participating.” This statement is backed by the Division I Board of Governors claim that if there are 50 percent or more of schools deciding not to play, then there cannot be a legitimate championship. Unfortunately, this golden number was reached once the Big East announced on Aug.12 that they have decided to withdraw from fall sports.

This announcement will impact Clemson’s men and women cross country, men and women soccer and women volleyball seasons. Something important to note is that this announcement does not affect any Football Bowl Subdivision, FBS, football teams, including our Clemson Tigers, and therefore does not impact the possibility of having a College Football Playoff, CFP, this season, despite the amount of schools that have made the decision to not play. 

While this announcement may seem bleak, the NCAA is still hopeful that sports could resume in the spring 2021 season, with the possibility of Division I fall sports also having the chance to shine in the spring.

Emmert expressed the possibility to “use the fall… to keep kids healthy, keep them engaged with their coaches and their athletic departments, focus on their academic success…the let’s go compete [in the spring].” At this point, the ACC has not committed to pushing fall sports to the spring. However, this idea is enticing, especially if it allows the soccer, cross country and volleyball teams to play a full schedule and have a championship to work towards.

At the very least, as of now Clemson fans will still have the opportunity to support our teams throughout their regular season schedule and hopefully see them snag a few conference championships along the way.