Conferences Petition N.C.A.A., Seeking to Cut Sports

Richard Rodriguez/Associated Press

The commissioners of five college athletic conferences have asked the N.C.A.A. to relax some of its requirements because of financial problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a joint letter to the president of the N.C.A.A., Mark Emmert, the commissioners of the American Athletic, Mountain West, Mid-American and Sun Belt conferences and Conference USA asked for temporary relief for up to four years, calling this the “direst financial crisis for higher education since at least the Great Depression.”

“We felt that there were some common-sense things we would take up with the N.C.A.A,” said Mike Aresco, the commissioner of the American Athletic Conference,…