Mark Emmert: No students on campus, no sports

The status of the fall sports season, which includes college football, remains extremely fluid, with no one truly knowing what will happen.

Last week, multiple college commissioners told Brett McMurphy of Stadium that student-athletes would not be prevented from returning to campus to play sports such as football if classes are limited to online-only instruction.

That came two weeks after Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said, “There’s room for that to happen. School has to be in session, student-athletes have to be going to class.”

With two very different statements out in the open, NCAA President Mark Emmert is siding with Bowlsby’s comments. As he made it clear, there will be no college sports without students on campus.

“If a school doesn’t reopen, then they’re not going to be playing sports. It’s really that simple,” Emmert said during a live conversation on the NCAA’s Twitter channel.

“College athletes are college students, and you can’t have college sports if you don’t have college (campuses) open and having students on them. You don’t want to ever put student-athletes at greater risk than the rest of the student body.”

With these comments, it appears to be clearer than ever that there will be no college football or fall sports if students are not allowed back on their respective campuses.

As of now, the University of Kentucky and several other SEC schools plan to resume in-person classes this fall, but that is subject to change if the coronavirus continues to spread or a second-wave of the virus hits.

Thus, at the end of the day, only the virus will determine if there’s ball in the fall.