UNDATED (AP) - The NCAA will not conduct fall championship events - a move that does not affect major college football - because not enough schools are competing in sports such as men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.
NCAA President Mark Emmert made the announcement in a video posted on Twitter, although it has been clear this was coming as conferences canceled fall sports seasons because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision comes after The Big Sky, West Coast and Southern conferences announced Thursday that they are the latest Division I leagues to postpone its fall sports schedule.
Emmert said the NCAA would prioritize staging championships in winter and spring sports because those — including the NCAA basketball tournaments— were canceled when COVID-19 first spiked across the United States in March.
Last week the NCAA Board of Governors said championship events in a sport would canceled if fewer than 50% of the teams competing in that sports played a regular season.