Safe athletes, open schools before teams start -- NCAA president
Published May 16, 2020 12:00 am
By Agence France-Presse
US universities must open in some fashion and safeguard athletes' health before major American football programs stage a 2020 campaign, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) president Mark Emmert said Friday.
(Photo by STREETER LECKA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
"We're going to have to be more flexible," Emmert told CNN regarding playing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but added, "We're not going to compromise health and well being."
Emmert says schools must open, even if only virtually for online classes, and have health safety measures for gridiron players to take the field in the NFL's primary talent development source.
"You have to have the campus open on one level or another before you can have college athletes on those campuses," Emmert said.
While he calls that a standard that must be met, it will be colleges nationwide that makes final decisions.
"It's certainly a decision each campus is going to have to make on its own," he said. "Nothing, I think, is going to be typical this fall."
A USA Today analysis last month estimated a complete shutdown of the 2020 American football campaigns for schools in the five major US college conferences would be a revenue hit for the universities of $4.1 billion.
At more than $78 million per school, that would wipe out a combined 60 percent of total annual operating revenues, according to the report.
In addition to the chaos of leagues where some schools might choose not to compete while others do, it's likely some schools will begin before others.
"It's certainly going to be a juggling event," Emmert said. "It's very likely schools will be restarting sports at different times."
Schools will need protocols to uncover symptoms, virus testing, contact tracing and handle positive cases.
"It's how you react to it that's going to be critical," Emmert said. "Today we don't have access to that level of testing at this stage. We're very hopeful that's going to be the case going forward."
(Photo by STREETER LECKA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
"We're going to have to be more flexible," Emmert told CNN regarding playing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, but added, "We're not going to compromise health and well being."
Emmert says schools must open, even if only virtually for online classes, and have health safety measures for gridiron players to take the field in the NFL's primary talent development source.
"You have to have the campus open on one level or another before you can have college athletes on those campuses," Emmert said.
While he calls that a standard that must be met, it will be colleges nationwide that makes final decisions.
"It's certainly a decision each campus is going to have to make on its own," he said. "Nothing, I think, is going to be typical this fall."
A USA Today analysis last month estimated a complete shutdown of the 2020 American football campaigns for schools in the five major US college conferences would be a revenue hit for the universities of $4.1 billion.
At more than $78 million per school, that would wipe out a combined 60 percent of total annual operating revenues, according to the report.
In addition to the chaos of leagues where some schools might choose not to compete while others do, it's likely some schools will begin before others.
"It's certainly going to be a juggling event," Emmert said. "It's very likely schools will be restarting sports at different times."
Schools will need protocols to uncover symptoms, virus testing, contact tracing and handle positive cases.
"It's how you react to it that's going to be critical," Emmert said. "Today we don't have access to that level of testing at this stage. We're very hopeful that's going to be the case going forward."