Mark Emmert acknowledges NCAA won’t make the call when it comes to reopening college football

The testicularly-challenged NCAA and its emperor-with-no-clothes figurehead have finally acknowledged what everyone knew all along. Inadvertently, but they acknowledged it.

Earlier this month, the NCAA released nine core principles that will guide the group through reopening collegiate athletics. Included in that protocol is three phases that will aid in the eventual return of sports at that level.

College football, though, is a different animal. Entirely. There have been myriad forecasts as to when the season can begin. If it even begins at all. On-time, as scheduled. In October. In January. Or even February. Or, a split season. Or, as the growing consensus seems to be of late, different conferences starting at different times. Thus potentially necessitating conference-only slates.

Tuesday, it was reported that Alabama was looking to swap out USC for TCU for its 2020 season opener. The reason? Certain parts of California are looking to extend its stay-at-home orders through at least the middle of August. A Div. II conference in the state has already suspended its entire fall sports season as well.

Subsequent to that, president Mark Emmert told ESPN.com that it’s not the NCAA’s job to determine when sports returns.

Normally, there’s an agreed upon start date for every sport, every season, but under these circumstances, now that’s all been derailed by the pandemic. It won’t be the conferences that can do that, either. It will be the local and state health officials that say whether or not you can open and play football with fans.

We already saw the Oregon governor offering her views on what’s likely to happen in September. The Pac-12 can say, ‘Gee, we’d all like to open up on this date,’ but whether or not you can is going to be ultimately up to the state and local health officials and the campus itself making a decision whether or not they want to go forward.

And there it is. Conferences, especially Power Fives, in conjunction with state and local officials will determine when college football returns. Not the NCAA. As everyone with a pulse knew all along.

Or, as Jay Bilas stated earlier this week:

You have to remember, the NCAA office in Indianapolis has no say over football. And the SEC or the B1G, if they feel like they are safe enough to play football, they’re playing football and the NCAA is not going to be able to stop it.

The NCAA is dead. Long live the NCAA. At least when it comes to revenue sports like college football.

And don’t be surprised if a Power Five split from The Association is an unintended consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. One that many in that group will consider long overdue.