NCAA president Mark Emmert doesn’t think you can have the football season if students aren’t on campus.
As we continue to fight during the coronavirus pandemic, there’s been chatter about playing football games without students returning to campus. Well, the man running the NCAA doesn’t think that’s an option. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Emmert said the following about the situation, according to ESPN:
All of the commissioners and every president that I’ve talked to is in clear agreement: If you don’t have students on campus, you don’t have student-athletes on campus. That doesn’t mean [the school] has to be up and running in the full normal model, but you have to treat the health and well-being of the athletes at least as much as the regular students. … If a school doesn’t reopen, then they’re not going to be playing sports. It’s really that simple.
You can watch his full comments below.
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???????????? ???????????????????????? ???????? ???????????????????????????? ????????????????????????NCAA President Mark Emmert & NCAA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian Hainline discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the future of college sports with @TheAndyKatz. https://t.co/tX8JYtbapq
— NCAA (@NCAA) May 8, 2020
Yeah, I have to disagree with Emmert here, and I really don’t care if that’s his stance. Whether or not students are on campus, you have to let teams play.
Can teams sit out if they want to? Sure, but good luck telling the SEC they can’t play football because the PAC-12 doesn’t want to.
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Furthermore, Emmert’s comments seem to go directly against what we’ve heard from some conference commissioners who think it can happen without students.
At the end of the day, all options have to be on the table. All options to save the football season have to be considered.
If that means playing football games without students back on campus, then that’s what we’ll do. It’s not even a tough call to make.
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Save me the speech about how these are student athletes and all that nonsense. That charade is over. If the players can safely play, then that’s what must be done!