Report: Colleges Discussing In-Conference Home-and-Home Matchups Amid COVID-19

As the 2020 college football season approaches, some conferences are beginning to prepare contingency plans in case their opponents are unable to play as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

According to Stadium's Brett McMurphy, several schools are having "preliminary discussions" about home-and-home series for this season should they need to replace games on this year's slate. 

On Tuesday, NCAA President Mark Emmert told ESPN's Heather Dinich that state officials and university presidents would have the final say about when to return to college sports, with the NCAA not requiring one set approach:

"Normally there's an agreed-upon start date for every sport, every season, but under these circumstances, now that's all been derailed by the pandemic. It won't be the conferences that can do that, either. It will be the local and state health officials that say whether or not you can open and play football with fans.

"We already saw the Oregon governor offering her views on what's likely to happen in September. The Pac-12 can say, 'Gee, we'd all like to open up on this date,' but whether or not you can is going to be ultimately up to the state and local health officials and the campus itself making a decision whether or not they want to go forward."

It remains unclear which conferences are discussing home-and-home series or when such a clause would need to be triggered in order to play the series. 

In the meantime, it's clear schools remain motivated to kick off this fall and are working through backup plans to ensure it's possible in some form.