The NCAA’s second-highest football level will not crown a champion in 2020, as more schools announced Friday that they would not take it this fall due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Universities consisting of the Missouri Valley Football Conference, Big Sky Conference and Pioneer Football League all said they will not play this fall, effectively pulling the plug on postseason play for the NCAAs Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
While FCS teams and conferences have pulled out of the fall game in recent weeks, the NCAA announced that FCS playoffs will be canceled if 50 percent of the eligible teams. When the MVFC, Big Sky and Pioneer all opted for fall football, that minimum threshold was broken.
Before Friday, a host of other FCS leagues had called up fall football: the Ivy League, Patriot League, Colonial Athletic Association, Northeast Conference, Southwestern Athletic Conference and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
The 2019 FCS title was won by North Dakota State University, which beat James Madison University in the final round.
Lower levels of NCAA football, Division II and Division III, had also canceled playoffs this week.
The highest level of college football, the Football Bowl Subdivision, has its playing period run by an independent body, the College Football Playoff (CFP).
The CFP, at least for now, plans to hold its annual four-team league, but moved the date to choose that field from December 6 to December 20, pending delays in ending the football season of the college – adopted from the sport will be played entirely this fall.
