It's still possible that some Football Bowl Subdivision conferences could play for a national championship this fall, but the rest of the NCAA's fall sports teams won't have that opportunity.
NCAA president Mark Emmert confirmed Thursday that the NCAA will not conduct any fall sports championships this year, as the NCAA had already determined that fall sports championships would be canceled for any sport in any division in which less than 50 percent of eligible teams are not playing.
"We cannot, at this point, have fall NCAA championships."
— NCAA (@NCAA) August 13, 2020
NCAA President Mark Emmert discusses the latest developments in fall sports and looks ahead to winter and spring championships.
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That decision applies to all the fall sports in which the NCAA conducts national championships, including cross country, field hockey, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball and water polo in addition to Football Championship Subdivision, Division II and Division III football.
Because the NCAA does not operate the College Football Playoff, it remains possible the CFP could proceed forward with its regularly scheduled playoff if the ACC, Big 12 and SEC stick to their current plans to play football this fall. The CFP selection committee announced Thursday that it is still preparing for a playoff this year despite the Big Ten and Pac-12's decisions to postpone their fall sports seasons to the spring.
It's also possible that other fall sports teams in those conferences – as well as the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA and Sun Belt, which are also still planning to play fall sports as of now – could still compete in regular-season games and conference tournaments this fall.
Emmert said the NCAA will attempt to conduct championships for its fall sports in the spring, which will give Ohio State's fall sports teams other than football a chance to compete for national titles if they are able to play in the spring. Winter and spring sports championships will be prioritized by the NCAA, however, because those sports already had their NCAA championships canceled last year.
