NCAA Division I fall championships canceled

Fall championships have been canceled for NCAA Division I soccer, as several more conferences postponed their seasons this week.

Division I joins the NCAA’s Division II and III, which announced their decisions to cancel fall championships on August 5. After the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big East each postponed their seasons over the past several days – amid a continued flurry of smaller D-I conferences doing the same – college sports reached a tipping point of remaining teams left to compete for championships this fall.

The news officially broke on Thursday during a live stream with NCAA President Mark Emmert, who stated the following:

“We cannot now, at this point, have fall NCAA championships, because there’s not enough schools participating. The Board of Governors also said, ‘Look, if you don’t have half of the schools playing a sport, you can’t have a legitimate championship.’ So we can’t in any Division I NCAA championship sport, which is everything other than FBS football, that goes on in the fall. Sadly, tragically, that’s going to be the case this fall, full-stop.”

Emmert added that the NCAA will consider holding fall sports championships in the winter or spring.

"We cannot, at this point, have fall NCAA championships."

NCAA President Mark Emmert discusses the latest developments in fall sports and looks ahead to winter and spring championships.

Hear more on the NCAA Social Series TONIGHT at 7 p.m. ET from @NCAA. pic.twitter.com/SmjC8FU0Uo

— NCAA (@NCAA) August 13, 2020