Ohio State football: NCAA President speaks on college football season

Ohio State would love nothing more than to get a football season this year. Mark Emmert, the President of the NCAA, talked about that very possibility in an interview this morning.

Ohio State, like a lot of other universities, really want a college football season to happen in 2020. If it doesn’t happen, athletic departments all across the country are slated to lose tens of millions of dollars. These universities will do anything they can to get a season together.

Mark Emmert laid out how that is possible this morning in an interview on the TODAY show on NBC News. Among other things, Emmert talked about how each university must adhere to a very strict COVID testing regiment if they are to play this Fall.

"“Every school has to test every athlete going forward into competition at least once a week, and no more than 72 hours before any competition. If they can’t get [results] back within a 72 hour period, they simply can’t compete. That’s unfortunate, but that’s the reality.”"

Ohio State apparently tests its players twice a week, so they are more than adhering to the guidelines set forth by the NCAA. They will have to continue to do so if they want to complete their season in the Fall. Emmert also stressed that this is no longer a guideline, it is in fact mandatory.

"“Any school and conference that decides to move forward—and that decision won’t be until August 21—but if they decide to move forward, they have to meet a very clear, very rigid protocol… They’re not guidelines anymore. They’re mandatory.”"

It’s interesting that schools have another two weeks to decide whether or not they are going forward with a season. It makes sense that the deadline is soon so that everyone else can make plans if a school on their schedule drops out. We’ve already seen UCONN drop out for 2020.

That is the next date to look at, August 21. That will tell us who is in and who is out of the college football season in 2020. There’s no doubt that Ohio State is in. The question is how long into the season they get. They might have to quit halfway through, or they could get everything in. It’s anyone’s guess at this point.

It will be very interesting to see what other teams and conferences do between now and that August 21 deadline. If any teams in the Big Ten change anything, we will certainly let you know.