Clemson football and its championship opportunities are not dictated by the NCAA
There were plenty of people in an uproar over the NCAA’s decision to cancel fall championships Thursday night, but it has no bearing on Clemson football- or really anything- moving forward.
The NCAA made the expected decision to cancel fall championships for Division 1 schools, but the organization has no say on FBS football. That decision is left up to the CFB Playoff and the conferences.
While some say a perceived ‘optics battle’ could occur with the three Power-5 leagues- and a few other Group of 5 leagues- continuing to play football after the NCAA canceled fall championships, the truth of the matter is pretty simple: These conferences knew the NCAA was going to do this well before the announcement came.
These conferences can still play the other sports- such as soccer and volleyball- but the NCAA won’t be crowning a National Champion.
"“The board of governors also established if you don’t have half of the schools playing a sport, you can’t have a legitimate championship,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a video posted on the NCAA’s Twitter feed. “We can’t in any Division I NCAA championship sport now — 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.”"
Yes, there’s an optics battle, but that doesn’t ultimately have to stop Clemson football
There will be a major optics battle with schools canceling and others choosing to play, but it’s not like any of the conferences that made these decisions earlier to keep playing weren’t already aware of that.
If the only thing standing in the way of us seeing Clemson football play this fall- along with other sports, I might add- is an optics battle, then there’s no reason that we shouldn’t play.
I’m no doctor and I don’t pretend to have the answers. If it’s not safe to play, then the conferences need to make that determination as well.
But there’s really no reason to change anything in the course when it comes to the NCAA’s decision. As we’ve learned over the past several months- and really what we’ve known for years- the NCAA is basically irrelevant and is living on borrowed time anyway.
Oh, we also might add that- on the same day- the CFB Playoff committee said it would proceed forward with its plans.