Indiana Hoosiers: NCAA President talks about return to play

The Indiana Hoosiers are awaiting how and when they will finally get back out to play and NCAA President Mark Emmert talked about that today.

Colleges are trying to get as back to normal as possible, but know that things are very different. Sports are still in a waiting game and some schools aren’t even allowing face to face instruction. It is all going to be a big adjustment for everyone.

While taking classes might look differently, they are definitely taking place. What we still don’t know yet is if sports will take place in the fall. On Thursday morning, though, NCAA President Mark Emmert finally spoke out about the possibility of playing and how it might look.

Emmert joined NBC News Today in an interview where he spoke about his thoughts on the situation.

https://www.today.com/video/ncaa-president-talks-about-challenges-facing-college-sports-amid-pandemic-89633861833

During the interview he said it is now mandatory for schools to have very rigid protocols in place:

"“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.”"

He also added what schools must to do as far as testing goes:

"“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.” He continued, “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.”"

Fortunately, Indiana should have the resources available to test their student-athletes, but that presents a problem for some smaller schools that just can’t make that work. It will be interesting to see how and if the NCAA helps out in any way for schools that may be having trouble with that.

He also addressed the issue of allowing athletes to opt-out of the season without losing a year of eligibility. He would say:

"“make sure that students have complete flexibility about opting out or deciding not to play,” adding that students “need to have the assurance that this pandemic is not going to be held against them.” Emmert concluded, “We need to make sure that fairness exists on all of our campuses.”"

This definitely makes it seem like athletes would basically be able to take a red-shirt year if they decided to opt-out. It would also make sense that even if they didn’t have a red-shirt year left they would still be able to do that.

This could definitely affect how schools address their scholarships for next year. As most schools already have a head start on their 2021 class if an athlete decides not to play that will hold up a scholarship from opening up.

There are still a ton of questions and protocols schools will have to deal with in order to play, but this seems like there is still a possibility for sports to happen in the fall.

It will remain to be seen if they actually get played, but the fact that Emmert is talking about what needs to be done in order to play at least gives the notion that they are trying to make things happen.