With sports on hold, Mountain West asks NCAA to ease requirements for up to four years
With winter championships and spring seasons canceled in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus and uncertainly surrounding when sports will return, the Group of Five commissioners joined forces Tuesday to ask the NCAA for help.
Commissioners from the Mountain West, American, Conference USA, Mid-American and Sun Belt sent NCAA President Mark Emmert a letter asking the NCAA to ease several regulations for a period of up to four years in an effort to avoid financial pitfalls. The action could result in shortened seasons or the elimination of postseason conference tournaments in non-revenue sports.
“We have been working closely with our membership for the past few weeks developing potential options to address the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. “Other conferences are engaged in the same process, and this collaborative request from the Group of Five is intended as the sort of creative alternative these unprecedented times demand.”
Athletic departments all over the country are preparing for budget shortfalls, and schools have already started cutting sports. On Tuesday, Cincinnati cut men’s soccer, and Old Dominion University in Virginia cut wrestling earlier this month.
Thompson said Tuesday’s letter was about making sure schools outside of Power Five conferences have the flexibility to navigate the coming financial landscape.
“The waivers of NCAA legislation would create a permissive environment, allowing each institution and conference across the Division I landscape the necessary flexibility to determine how best to proceed in making financial adjustments, which are intended to preserve sports and opportunities for student-athletes,” Thompson said.
Chief among the regulations the commissioners sought relief from is the NCAA’s requirement that all FBS schools field 16 varsity intercollegiate sports. Boise State currently fields teams in 18 sports.
They also requested the NCAA ease its requirement that football teams play at least 60% of their games and at least five home games against FBS opponents.
Other requests ranged from waiving football attendance requirements and the minimum number of contests required for postseason consideration in varying sports, and easing financial aid rules, which require athletic departments to spend at last $4 million annually on scholarships.
The commissioners cited decreased state appropriations, losses in endowment value, a downturn in philanthropic activity and potential enrollment declines that have created the “direst financial crisis for higher education since at least the Great Depression.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 7:09 PM.
