2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Attendance restrictions
Some teams announced that they tentatively planned to allow spectators at their games at a percentage of normal capacity, such as the Texas Longhorns (Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium was already to have slightly reduced capacity this season due to renovations) and the North Carolina Tar Heels. All events held in the state of New York, as well as all Big Ten and Pac-12 games, were played behind closed doors. The Big Ten and Pac-12 bans applied even if spectators were otherwise allowed under local health orders.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Attendance restrictions
The Army Black Knights and Navy Midshipmen's home games were closed to the public, with attendance limited to their cadets and midshipmen respectively. On October 23, it was announced that the Army–Navy Game would be re-located from Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field to Michie Stadium—the Black Knights' home stadium at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point—citing Pennsylvania state restrictions on gatherings that would prevent the cadets and midshipmen from attending. As with their home games, attendance was limited to the academies' student bodies. It marked the first Army–Navy Game not played at a neutral site since 1943.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Kickoff games
All kickoff games were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Kickoff games, "Week Zero"
The regular season was scheduled to begin on August 29 with various "Week 0" games, but all were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were two especially notable Week Zero games:


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Kickoff games, "Week Zero"
Originally, Marshall was set to play at East Carolina, to honor the 50th anniversary of the plane crash that killed 75 people, including 37 from the Marshall University football team. The crash occurred as the Thundering Herd were returning from a game at East Carolina.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Kickoff games, "Week Zero"
Additionally, the Emerald Isle Classic at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland was scheduled to occur during Week 0, featuring Navy versus Notre Dame. However, on June 2, 2020, the game was moved from Dublin to Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. Eventually, the game was canceled altogether. The game would have been be the first in the history of the Navy–Notre Dame football rivalry to be played at Navy's home stadium. The series will resume in 2021.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Kickoff games, Week 1
The majority of FBS teams were scheduled to open the season on Labor Day weekend. However, most conferences delayed the start of their seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the ACC and Big 12 conferences are scheduled to begin play the weekend of September 12, while the SEC conference will begin conference-only play the weekend of September 26.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Kickoff games, Week 1
Four neutral-site "kickoff" games were scheduled to be held but were also canceled.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Regular season Top 10 matchups
Rankings reflect the AP Poll. Rankings for Week 13 and beyond listed College Football Playoff Rankings first and AP Poll second. Teams that failed to be a top 10 team for one poll or the other will be noted.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Upsets
This section lists instances of unranked teams defeating ranked teams during the season.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Upsets, Regular season
During the regular season, 33 unranked teams defeated a ranked team. The highest-ranked teams that lost to an unranked opponent were No. 3 Oklahoma in week 4 and No. 5 North Carolina in week 7. Rankings are based on the AP Poll at the time the game was played.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Upsets, Bowl games
During the bowl season, five unranked teams defeated a ranked team. Rankings in this section are based on the final CFP rankings released on December 20.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Rankings
The top 25 from the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Rankings, CFB Playoff final rankings
In December 2021, the College Football Playoff selection committee will announce its final team rankings for the year.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Postseason
The NCAA waived bowl eligibility requirements for the 2020–21 bowl season, intended "to allow as many student-athletes as possible the opportunity to participate in bowl games this year." On October 30, the postseason lineup of bowl games was announced; 37 bowls were scheduled, including the National Championship game. Subsequent cancellations resulted in a schedule of 33 games, as compared to 40 games contested during the prior bowl season. On December 20, after final CFP standings were released, an additional four games were left without teams available to play, leaving the count at 29. On December 22, the Gasparilla Bowl was canceled after the South Carolina team had an increase in COVID-19 cases. On December 27, the Music City Bowl was canceled due to Missouri's high positive COVID-19 numbers. On December 29, the Texas Bowl was canceled, due to TCU's COVID-19 issues.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Awards and honors, Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Coaching changes, Preseason and in-season
This is restricted to coaching changes taking place on or after May 1, 2020, and will also include any changes announced after a team's last regularly scheduled game but before its bowl game. For coaching changes that occurred earlier in 2020, see 2019 NCAA Division I FBS end-of-season coaching changes.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Coaching changes, End of season
This list includes coaching changes announced during the season that did not take effect until the end of the season.


2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Television viewers and ratings, Most-watched regular season games
All times Eastern. Rankings are from the AP Poll (before 11/24) and CFP Rankings (thereafter).


2020 NCAA Division I FCS football rankings
The 2020 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) football rankings consists of two human polls, in addition to various publications' preseason polls. Unlike the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), college football's governing body, the NCAA, bestows the national championship title through a 24-team tournament. The following weekly polls determine the top 25 teams at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level of college football for the 2020 season. The STATS poll is voted by media members while the Coaches' Poll is determined by coaches at the FCS level.


2020 NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship
The 2020 NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship is the 40th annual tournament organized by the NCAA, to determine the national champion of Division I women's college field hockey in the United States.


2020 NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship
The semifinals and championship match were scheduled to be played at LR Hill Sport Complex at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia from November 20 to 22, 2020, however, the tournament was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The semifinals and championship match will be held from May 7 to 9, 2021 at Karen Shelton Stadium at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.


2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game
The 2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game was a postseason college football game that determined a national champion in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision for the 2019 season. It was played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on January 11, 2020, with kickoff at 12:00 p.m. EST (11:00 a.m. local CST), and television coverage on ABC. It was the culminating game of the 2019 FCS Playoffs.


2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game, Teams
The participants of the 2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game were the finalists of the 2019 FCS Playoffs—North Dakota State and James Madison—which began with a 24-team bracket. This was a rematch of the 2018 FCS Championship Game, won by North Dakota State, 17–13. Entering the game, North Dakota State and James Madison had won every FCS championship, with North Dakota State winning eight and James Madison winning one, since the 2010 Eastern Washington Eagles won the 2011 FCS Championship Game.


2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game, Teams, North Dakota State Bison
North Dakota State entered the game with a 15–0 record. They were 12–0 during the regular season, finishing atop the Missouri Valley Football Conference with an 8–0 conference record. The Bison received the top seed for the FCS playoffs, entitling them to a first-round bye. They then defeated Nicholls, Illinois State, and Montana State to reach the championship game. North Dakota entered the title match with a 36-game winning streak, having not lost since falling to South Dakota State on November 4, 2017.


2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game, Teams, North Dakota State Bison
This was North Dakota State's eighth FCS title game; they were 7–0 in prior championship game appearances, having won titles for the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018 seasons. During the 2016 playoffs, they were denied a spot in the title game due to a semifinal loss to James Madison.


2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game, Teams, James Madison Dukes
James Madison entered the game with a 14–1 record. They were 11–1 during the regular season, finishing atop the Colonial Athletic Association with an 8–0 conference record. Their only loss was to FBS program West Virginia, 20–13, on August 31. The Dukes received the second seed for the FCS playoffs, entitling them to a first-round bye. They then defeated Monmouth, Northern Iowa, and Weber State to reach the championship game.


2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game, Teams, James Madison Dukes
This was James Madison's fourth FCS title game; they were 2–1 in prior championship game appearances, having won titles for the 2004 and 2016 seasons.


2020 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships
The 2020 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships was to be the 56th NCAA Men's Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships and the 39th NCAA Women's Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at the Albuquerque Convention Center. In total, thirty-four different men's and women's indoor track and field events were to be contested from March 13 to March 14, 2020. The event (along with all winter championships and spring sports) was cancelled by the NCAA on March 12, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the attendance before was to be limited only to coaches, participants and personnel.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament was a planned single-elimination tournament of 68 teams to determine the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 2019–20 season. The 82nd edition of the tournament would have begun on March 17, 2020, and concluded with the championship game on April 6 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
On March 12, the tournament, as well as all other NCAA championships for the remainder of the academic season, were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, just five days before it was set to begin. It was the first time the tournament had been cancelled since its creation in 1939.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, Schedule and venues
Prior to cancellation, fourteen venues had been scheduled to host games in the 2020 tournament:


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, COVID-19 impact and cancellation
The timing of the tournament coincided with the wider spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. On March 10, the Ivy League announced it had cancelled the conference's tournament, and would award its championship and automatic qualification to Yale based on regular season records. Harvard University was scheduled to host the event at Lavietes Pavilion in Boston on March 14 and 15. Some conferences subsequently announced they would go on with their tournaments while holding their games behind closed doors with no outside spectators and limited attendance, especially on March 11 (when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic).


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, COVID-19 impact and cancellation
The NCAA subsequently announced it would go on with its winter-sport championships, including its basketball tournaments, with attendance limited to essential staff and family members. Some venues (such as those in Ohio and California) enacted further local numerical restrictions on the numbers of those who could attend an event, which the NCAA agreed to respect. Reports also stated that for practicality reasons, the NCAA was considering re-locating some of the later rounds (including the regional finals and the Final Four, the latter scheduled to be held at the 71,000-seat Mercedes-Benz Stadium) to smaller venues within the same host cities.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, COVID-19 impact and cancellation
On March 11, hours after the WHO's pandemic declaration, the NBA suspended its regular season after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert was diagnosed with COVID-19. On the same night, Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg fell visibly ill during a game in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. There were initial fears that Hoiberg had COVID-19, but he was ultimately diagnosed with influenza A. The following day, due in part to Gobert's diagnosis and Hoiberg’s health scare, all conferences that had not yet concluded tournament play announced they would be scrapping their tournaments.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, COVID-19 impact and cancellation
Many of them had announced they would play without fans, but it was decided to scrap play altogether. With the decision to cancel the 2020 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament, all games that had yet to be played in the basketball season were cancelled, while the Big East called off its tournament at halftime during a quarter-final game between Creighton and St. John's. Most major conferences also announced suspensions of all athletics to varying degrees. Later in the day, the NCAA announced the tournament would be cancelled, along with all remaining winter and spring championships for the academic year.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, COVID-19 impact and cancellation
The NCAA had not ruled out publishing what would have been its at-large selections and bracket. Vice president of men's basketball Dan Gavitt told the Associated Press that he had proposed holding a shortened, 16-team tournament in Atlanta (split between State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium) as an alternative, with all participants chosen by the selection committee, before the decision was made to cancel the entire tournament due to Rudy Gobert's diagnosis. The NCAA ultimately decided against releasing any brackets, with Gavitt stating, "Brackets based on hypotheticals can’t substitute for a complete selection, seeding and bracketing process."


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, COVID-19 impact and cancellation
As part of a cycle that began in 2016, TBS was scheduled to televise the 2020 Final Four and national championship game. CBS was scheduled to televise the selection show. CBS Sports and Turner Sports announced on March 16 that all technicians and utility staff who were expected to work the NCAA March Madness coverage would still be paid. Radio rightsholder Westwood One announced plans to offer encores of radio broadcasts from classic NCAA tournament games—accompanied by interviews with notable figures from the respective games—to fill the time slots it had originally devoted to the tournament. CBS similarly announced on March 19 that it would also air nine classic Final Four games across the weekend afternoons of March 21, 22, and 29.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, Automatic qualifiers
Twelve teams had automatically qualified for the 2020 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, Automatic qualifiers
All conference tournaments that had not been completed were cancelled, the majority without naming an automatic qualifier. Teams with † next to their names were symbolically named automatic qualifiers by their conferences after their tournament was cancelled.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament was a planned national championship tournament for men's college ice hockey in the United States that was scheduled to take place from April 9–11, 2020. The tournament was to involve 16 teams in single-elimination play to determine the national champion at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the highest level of competition in college hockey. The tournament's Frozen Four – the semifinals and finals – was to be hosted by Michigan State University and the Detroit Sports Commission at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan. This was slated to be the seventh Frozen Four in the city of Detroit, with the most recent visitation being at Ford Field in 2010.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
On March 11, 2020, the NCAA announced the entire tournament would be conducted with "only essential staff and limited family attendance" due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following day, the NCAA announced that all NCAA championships for spring sports would be cancelled due to the pandemic.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Tournament procedure
The tournament was to comprise four groups of four teams in regional brackets. The four regionals were officially named after their geographic areas.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Tournament procedure
The winner of each regional was to advance to the Frozen Four:


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game
The 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game (also known as the 2020 NCAA Division I Men's College Cup) was played on May 17, 2021, at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina and determined the winner of the 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament, the national collegiate soccer championship in the United States. This was the 62nd edition of the oldest active competition in United States college soccer.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game
The tournament final was original slated to be held on December 13, 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the tournament was postponed to May 2021 by the NCAA, making it the first NCAA Soccer Championship Game to be played in the Spring time. Despite being played in 2021, the competition retained its 2020 branding.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game
The match featured Marshall University of Conference USA (C-USA) and Indiana University of the Big Ten Conference.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game
Marshall won the match on a golden goal in extra time becoming the first unseeded team to win the championship since UC Santa Barbara in 2006. This was Marshall's first men's soccer title and was also the first national title in a team sport won by a C-USA member while affiliated with the league.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, Road to the final
The NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament, sometimes known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I men's national champion. The tournament has been formally held since 1959, when it was an eight-team tournament. Since then, the tournament has expanded to 48 teams, in which every Division I conference tournament champion is allocated a berth. However, this season's tournament had a reduced tournament field size of 36 teams due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It was Marshall's first title game appearance in school history, and Indiana's first appearance since 2017, where they lost to Stanford. Indiana has won the NCAA Tournament on eight previous occasions: 1982, 1983, 1988, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, and 2012.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, Road to the final, Marshall
Marshall University was making their first appearance in the College Cup final in only their second NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. On April 18, the program qualified for the NCAA Tournament by winning the C-USA regular season championship by defeating Charlotte 2–0 in the season finale, claiming the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. It was the Thundering Herd's second consecutive Conference USA title. Entering the national championship game, Marshall accumulated a record of 12–2–3 across all competitions, and a 6–0–1 record in C-USA play.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, Road to the final, Marshall
Entering the NCAA Tournament, Marshall was ranked tenth overall in the United Soccer Coaches poll, but were unseeded, however, they earned a bye into the second round of the tournament. On May 2, in the second round, Marshall played A-10 Tournament champions, Fordham. Marshall needed an overtime goal by Milo Yosef to secure a 2–1 victory over the Rams. The Thundering Herd played number one overall seed and ACC Tournament champions, Clemson, to a 1–1 tie in the a third round (Sweet 16) on May 6. Marshall advanced on penalty kicks, winning 7–6.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, Road to the final, Marshall
On May 10, in the Quarterfinals (Elite 8), Marshall played Big East champions, 8th-seeded, and defending national champions, Georgetown Hoyas. The Herd defeated the Hoyas thanks to a Jamil Roberts goal in the 70th minute to win by a score of 1–0, allowing Marshall to book their trip to the College Cup (Final 4) for the first time in school history.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, Road to the final, Marshall
On May 14, the College Cup semifinal round was held at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina, where Marshall played against unseeded North Carolina from the ACC. North Carolina was making their ninth College Cup appearance having won the NCAA College Cup twice before in 2001 and 2011. Despite Marshall being outshot 11–1 by UNC during the game, Marshall made its one shot count in the 60th minute as it proved to be the only goal of the match. Marshall's 1–0 victory made them the fourth unseeded team to reach the National Championship game since 2003.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, Road to the final, Indiana
Indiana University was making their record sixteenth appearance in the national championship. Of the previous fifteen finals, Indiana had won eight of the finals, with their last loss in a national championship coming in 2017. Indiana booked their 34th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament on April 17, with a 3–2 penalty kick win against Penn State in the Big Ten Men's Soccer Championship Game. It was Indiana's third consecutive Big Ten Men's Soccer Tournament title as well as their third consecutive regular season championship. Entering the national championship game, Indiana accumulated a record of 12–1–2 across all competitions, and a 7–1–0 record in Big Ten play.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, Road to the final, Indiana
Entering the NCAA Tournament, Indiana ranked second overall in the United Soccer Coaches poll, and were given the third overall seed, allowing them to earn a bye into the second round of the tournament. The Hoosiers first NCAA Tournament game came on May 2, where they played the Northeast Conference champions, St. Francis Brooklyn. Indiana advanced 3–1 on penalty kicks after the matched ended in a 1–1 tie. The Hoosier played the Big East Midwest Division champions, Marquette in the third round (Sweet Sixteen) on May 6. Two second half goals by the Hoosiers proved to be the difference in the match as Indiana won 2–1.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, Road to the final, Indiana
On May 10, Indiana hosted the Big East Tournament champions, and 6th-seeded, Seton Hall. Indiana won the game 2–0 to advance to the College Cup for the third time in four years and the 21st time in school history.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, Road to the final, Indiana
On May 14, Indiana played second seeded Pittsburgh from the ACC in the College Cup semifinals, which was the second match of a doubleheader at WakeMed Soccer Park. In front of a crowd of 2,667, Indiana's Herbert Endeley scored a goal in the 79th minute to lift the Hoosiers past the Panthers and into the National Championship game by a score of 1–0


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship Game, Match, Details
Assistant referees:Eric Weisbrod (United States)Ryan Graves (United States)Fourth official:Brandon Marion (United States)


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament was the 62nd edition of the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament, a postseason tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA Division I men's college soccer. Pending developments with the COVID-19 pandemic, the first four rounds of the competition were scheduled to be held at the home ground of the higher seed, while the College Cup (semifinals and final) was to be held at Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara, California. The championship match was originally scheduled to take place on December 13, 2020.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament
On August 13, 2020, the tournament was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, although the possibility of playing the tournament during the spring 2021 remained.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament
On September 10, 2020, it was reported that the 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament would tentatively be rescheduled from April 30 to May 17, 2021. This was approved on September 16, 2020, with a reduced tournament field size of 36 teams. The College Cup was moved from Santa Barbara, California to Cary, North Carolina. Additionally, on March 25, 2021, the NCAA announced that the entire tournament, as well as the entire women's tournament, would be held in various locations throughout North Carolina.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament
Marshall won the title game 1–0 in overtime over Indiana. This was not only Marshall's first men's soccer title, but was also the first national title in a team sport won by a Conference USA member while affiliated with the league.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament, Qualification
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament featured only 36 teams. Of the 36 berths, 22 were allocated to the 19 conference tournament champions and to the regular-season winners of the Mid-American Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and West Coast Conference, which do not have tournaments. This included the champions of the ACC and Sun Belt, which held their conference championships in fall 2020. The additional 14 berths were at-large berths largely determined upon the Rating Percentage Index (RPI) of teams that did not automatically qualify.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament, Qualification
Ahead of the season, the Ivy League and Big West Conference canceled their seasons, allowing for two additional at-large berths.


2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament, Venues
Rather than the higher seed hosting the early-round matches, the entire tournament was played in the state of North Carolina, similar to how the 2021 men's and women's basketball tournaments were held in a single state.


2020 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships
The 2020 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships was scheduled to be the 99th NCAA Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships and the 39th NCAA Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships held at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. In total, forty-two different men's and women's track and field events were to be contested from Wednesday, June 10 to Saturday, June 13, 2020. On March 12, 2020, the event was cancelled by the NCAA due to the coronavirus pandemic.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament was scheduled to be played in March and April 2020, with the Final Four played Friday, April 3 and Sunday, April 5 to determine the champion of the 2019–20 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Final Four was planned to be played at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, with the University of New Orleans, Tulane University and the Sun Belt Conference serving as hosts.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament
This is the fourth time that New Orleans has been selected as a women's Final Four location (previously, in 1991, 2004, and 2013) and third time at the Smoothie King Center (previously named New Orleans Arena); the 1991 Final Four was contested at the University of New Orleans' Lakefront Arena. ESPN had planned to nationally televise all  63 games of the women's tournament for the first time ever.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament
However, on March 12, the NCAA announced that this tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first time the tournament had been canceled since its creation in 1982.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament, Tournament procedure
Pending any changes to the format, a total of 64 teams will enter the 2020 tournament. 32 automatic bids shall be awarded to each program that wins their conference's tournament. The remaining 36 bids are "at-large", with selections extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. The tournament is split into four regional tournaments, and each regional has teams seeded from 1 to 16, with the committee ostensibly making every region as comparable to the others as possible[citation needed]. The top-seeded team in each region plays the #16 team, the #2 team plays the #15, etc. (meaning where the two seeds add up to 17, that team will be assigned to play another).


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament, Tournament procedure
The Selection Committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 64.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament, 2020 NCAA Tournament schedule and venues
The first two rounds, also referred to as the subregionals, were to be played at the sites of the top 16 seeds, as was done from 1995 to 2004 and since 2016.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament, Coronavirus impact
On March 11, 2020, the NCAA announced that both men's and women's NCAA Tournaments would take place without fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This was followed up, on March 12, by an announcement cancelling the tournaments.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament, Subregionals Tournament and automatic qualifiers, Automatic qualifiers
The following teams had automatically qualified for the 2020 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament. All conference tournaments that had not been completed were cancelled, the majority of which without naming an automatic qualifier.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament (also known as the 2020 Women's College Cup) was the 39th annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of NCAA Division I women's collegiate soccer. The Santa Clara Broncos defeated the Florida State Seminoles on penalty kicks in the Final to win the National Championship.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament, Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA postponed the fall championships, hoping to play them in the spring. In September, a plan was approved to hold fall championships in the spring.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament, Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic
Instead of the usual 64-team tournament, the field is reduced to 48 teams for the 2020 tournament.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament, Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic
Rather than the higher seed hosting the early-round matches, the entire tournament will be played in the state of North Carolina, similar to how the 2021 men's and women's basketball tournaments were held in a single state.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament, Qualified teams
48 teams qualified for the Division I women's soccer tournament. There were 29 conference champions after the Big West Conference and Ivy League chose not to have a 2020 fall or 2021 spring season. The other 19 were at-large selections.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament, Statistics, Goalscorers
There were 120 goals scored in 47 matches, for an average of 2.55 goals per match.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships
The 2020 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships was a planned competitive swim and dive meet to determine the women's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I national champion for the 2019-20 season. It was scheduled to run from Wednesday, March 18th, 2020 through Saturday, March 21st, 2020 at the Gabrielsen Natatorium in Athens, Georgia. The host team was the Georgia Bulldogs of the University of Georgia.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships
On March 12th, 2020, the tournament, as well as all other NCAA championships for the remainder of the academic season, were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament began on April 14, 2021 and concluded on April 24 at the CHI Health Center Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska. The tournament field was announced on April 4, 2021. Typically held in the fall, this edition of the tournament was held in the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament
Kentucky beat Texas in the final to claim the first national volleyball championship not only for Kentucky, but also for its home of the Southeastern Conference.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Tournament schedule and venues
First Round, Second Round and Regional Semifinals (April 14, 15 and 18)


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Tournament schedule and venues
Regional Finals, National Semifinals and Championship (April 19, 22 and 24)


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Tournament schedule and venues
All games were played at the CHI Health Center Omaha. Twelve courts were built in the Convention Center portion of the building, 8 for practices and 4 for games. Attendance was limited to 80 people per game for the first and second rounds, mostly consisting of team family members. Additional fans were admitted as teams went home. Games moved from the convention center to the CHI Health Center Omaha arena for the Regional Finals, Semifinals, and National Championship.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Qualifying teams, Automatic qualifiers
The following teams automatically qualified for the 2020 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament. Only 30 conference champions received automatic qualifiers after the Big West Conference and Ivy League chose not to have a 2020 fall or 2021 spring season. This is the first tourrnament appearance for North Carolina A&T and Utah Valley.


2020 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament, Media coverage
For the first time ever all matches will air on the ESPN Family of networks. Rounds 1 and 2 will stream on ESPN3. Initially ESPN didn't plan to provide commentators for these rounds. After criticism from fans and coaches they changed course and announced they would provide commentary for the first two rounds. The Regional Semifinals will have select matches on ESPN2 and ESPNU with the remainder on ESPN3. All regional finals will air on ESPN2 or ESPNU, ESPN will carry the semifinals, and ESPN2 will carry the National Championship.


2020 NCAA Division I baseball rankings
The following human polls make up the 2020 NCAA Division I men's baseball rankings. The USAToday/ESPN Coaches Poll is voted on by a panel of 31 Division I baseball coaches. The Baseball America poll is voted on by staff members of the Baseball America magazine. These polls, along with the Perfect Game USA poll, rank the top 25 teams nationally. Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association rank the top 30 teams nationally.


2020 NCAA Division I baseball rankings, Collegiate Baseball
The Preseason poll ranked the top 40 teams in the nation. Teams not listed above are: 31. San Diego State; 32. Oregon State; 33. BYU; 34. UConn; 35. Houston; 36. East Carolina; 37. UC Irvine; 38. Central Michigan; 39 Ball State; 40. Florida Atlantic.


2020 NCAA Division I baseball rankings, NCBWA
The Preseason poll ranked the top 35 teams in the nation. Teams not listed above are: 31. Southern Miss 32. Ohio State 33. Miami (OH) 34. UC Santa Barbara 35. West Virginia


2020 NCAA Division I baseball season
The 2020 NCAA Division I baseball season, play of college baseball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level, began on February 14, 2020. On March 12, it was announced that the 2020 NCAA tournament would be canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The decision whether to continue with an abbreviated season was left to individual schools and conferences.


2020 NCAA Division I baseball season, Conference standings, Aborted conference tournaments
The below conferences would have ended their regular seasons with a single-elimination tournament or a double-elimination tournament; all were cancelled when the NCAA ended the spring sports season on March 12.


2020 NCAA Division I baseball season, College World Series
The 2020 College World Series was scheduled to start on June 12 in Omaha, Nebraska, but was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic and the NCAA prematurely ending spring sports for the 2019-2020 academic year.


2020 NCAA Division I baseball season, Coaching changes
This table lists programs that changed head coaches at any point from the first day of the 2020 season until the day before the first day of the 2021 season.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer rankings
Four major human polls make up the 2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer rankings: United Soccer Coaches, Top Drawer Soccer, Soccer America, and CollegeSoccerNews.com. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only the United Soccer Coaches poll was released. No pre-season poll was released and a five team poll was released on September 22, 2020 as the first poll of the season. The United Soccer Coaches resumed releasing a poll for the Spring Season on March 2, 2021.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer rankings
Top Drawer Soccer released a national ranking on February 1 for the Spring Season. The ranking took into account records of teams that played in the fall.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season
The 2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season was the 62nd season of NCAA championship men's college soccer. The season was originally slated to begin on August 28, 2020 and conclude on November 15, 2020. The season was to culminate with the 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament, which was to be held from November 18 to December 13, 2020, with the four-team College Cup at Meredith Field at Harder Stadium in Santa Barbara, California.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season
On August 13, 2020, the NCAA Tournament was suspended due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Leading up to the postseason tournament suspension, some conferences had planned to play conference-only matches during the fall season, while some conferences opted to postpone the season to Spring 2021 (February to May 2021). Ultimately, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Sun Belt Conference began play for the 2020 fall season; while a handful of programs scheduled competitive fixtures for the fall 2020 season: Army, Kentucky, Mercer, Navy, South Carolina, and UAB.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season
On September 16, 2020 the NCAA announced that the spring season would run from February 3 to April 17, 2021, culminating with the NCAA Tournament, which was reduced from 48 to 36 teams for this season only. The postponed NCAA Tournament began on April 30 and ended on May 17, 2021. The ACC and Sun Belt champions, which were determined in November, earned automatic bids into the tournament. Nevertheless, the fall season began with Notre Dame beating Kentucky, 1–0, on September 17, 2020.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season
On March 24, 2021, the NCAA announced that the entirety of the men's and women's tournament would be consolidated, with all 36 men's teams and 48 women's teams playing all games in Cary, North Carolina and its vicinity during the period from April 27–May 17.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, New programs
On November 27, 2017, it was announced that, in 2020, the Tritons of the University of California, San Diego, located in the San Diego, California district of La Jolla, would begin the transition from Division II to Division I as a member of the Big West Conference.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, New programs
On January 11, 2019, it was announced that the Trailblazers of Dixie State University of St. George, Utah would begin the transition from Division II to Division I as a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, New programs
On June 17, 2019, it was announced that the Knights of Bellarmine University of Louisville, Kentucky would begin the transition from Division II to Division I as a member of the ASUN Conference.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, New programs
Chicago State University announced on June 23, 2020 that it would begin men's soccer effective immediately. The school had first committed to adding the sport when joining the Western Athletic Conference in 2014, and it budgeted for a team in 2016, but the school did not then begin play due to financial challenges and seriously discussed leaving Division I. The decision to finally add men's soccer came at the same time the school dropped baseball due to fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cougars will play in their full-time home of the WAC  but will not begin conference play until 2021.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, New programs
On July 15, 2020, after months of consideration, the NCAA granted the highly unusual request of the University of St. Thomas to move directly from Division III to Division I. The school had already accepted an invitation to join the Summit League, and the Tommies will enter Division I and Summit League competition in 2021.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, Discontinued programs
On November 20, 2019, Valparaiso announced that the men's soccer and tennis teams would be eliminated to allow greater attention to the school's other sports teams.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, Discontinued programs
On April 14, 2020, Cincinnati announced that, due to uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the men's soccer program would be discontinued effective immediately.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, Discontinued programs
On May 26, 2020, Appalachian State, a Division I men's soccer power in the late 1970s, cut the men's soccer program and two other men's programs in response to the financial impact of COVID-19.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, Other changes
In June 2020, the Missouri Valley Conference and SIU Edwardsville jointly announced that SIUE men's soccer would leave the Mid-American Conference and return to the MVC effective with the 2021 season. While restoring the MVC to six teams, the move then reduced the MAC to only five teams.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, Other changes
The Sun Belt Conference had begun the 2020–21 school year with five men's soccer members, but by the start of the spring 2021 season, two were confirmed to be departing that July for conferences that sponsor men's soccer. On July 6, 2020, Howard announced that it would become an associate member of the Northeast Conference (NEC) in six sports no later than July 2021. Two sports joined the NEC for the 2020–21 school year, while the remaining four, including men's soccer, will join in July 2021.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, Other changes
Then, on January 29, 2021, the ASUN Conference officially announced three schools as incoming full members, including Sun Belt men's soccer associate member Central Arkansas. With the Sun Belt men's soccer league by that time all but certain to disband after the 2020–21 school year, Conference USA (C-USA) and Coastal Carolina jointly announced on February 25 that the Chanticleers would become men's soccer members of the league effective with the fall 2021 season.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Changes from 2019, Other changes
The end of Sun Belt men's soccer was confirmed on May 21 when the Mid-American Conference announced that the last two Sun Belt men's soccer members, Georgia Southern and Georgia State, would join the MAC for the fall 2021 season. This move also restored the MAC men's soccer league to seven teams.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Season outlook, Preseason polls
NOTE: College Soccer News released its pre-season poll before the NCAA moved the season to the Spring semester. The ACC and the Sun Belt and some other teams played son Fall games, and the Ivy League cancelled its season. Before the Spring season got underway, College Soccer News conducted a new poll and published a new Top 30. The new poll is to the right of the older one.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Season outlook, Impact of COVID-19 on season
For the 2020 season, several changes in how the season began, and how conference play was organized affected the 2020 season.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Fall 2020 season, Major upsets
In this list, a "major upset" is defined as a game won by an unranked team that defeats a ranked team.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Spring 2021 season, Standings
Note: W-L-T records are through the Finals of the NCAA Tournament.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Spring 2021 season, Postseason awards, Hermann Trophy
The Hermann Trophy is given to the year's most outstanding player. The finalists were announced on May 21. On May 27, 2021, Gloire Amanda of Oregon State won the Hermann Trophy.


2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Spring 2021 season, Postseason awards, TDS National Player of the Year
The TopDrawerSoccer.com National Player of the Year Award recognizes the top college soccer player in the nation by the TDS staff. On May 25, 2021, Veljko Petkovic of Pitt won the award.


2020 NCAA Division I softball rankings
The following human polls made up the 2020 NCAA Division I women's softball rankings. The NFCA/ USA Today Poll was voted on by a panel of 32 Division I softball coaches. The ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Poll was voted on by a panel of 20 voters. The NFCA/ USA Today poll, the Softball America poll, the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate rankings, and D1Softball ranked the top 25 teams nationally.


2020 NCAA Division I softball rankings, NFCA/USA Today
The final NFCA/ USA Today poll was announced on April 7, 2020 after the 2020 NCAA Division I softball season was cancelled due to COVID-19.


2020 NCAA Division I softball rankings, ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25
The final ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 poll was announced on April 7, 2020 after the 2020 NCAA Division I softball season was cancelled due to COVID-19.


2020 NCAA Division I softball rankings, Softball America
The final Softball America poll was announced on March 24, 2020 after the 2020 NCAA Division I softball season was cancelled due to COVID-19.


2020 NCAA Division I softball season
The 2020 NCAA Division I Softball season, play of college softball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level, began February 6, 2020. The season ended on March 12, 2020, when the NCAA cancelled all winter championships and spring sports seasons due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 2020 NCAA Division I Softball Tournament and 2020 Women's College World Series, which were to be held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, did not occur.


2020 NCAA Division I softball season, Coronavirus impact and cancellation
As of March 12, 2020, the NCAA cancelled both the remainder of the season and the tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic.


2020 NCAA Division I softball season, Coaching changes
This table lists programs that changed head coaches at any point from the first day of the 2020 season until the day before the first day of the 2021 season.


2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer rankings
Three polls make up the 2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer rankings, the United Soccer Coaches Poll, the Soccer America Poll, and the Top Drawer Soccer Poll. They represent the ranking system for the 2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only the United Soccer Coaches poll was released for the fall season. No preseason poll was released and a fifteen-team poll was released on September 22, 2020 as the first poll of the season.


2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer rankings
Top Drawer Soccer released a national ranking on February 1 for the Spring Season. The ranking took into account records of teams that played in the fall.


2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season
The 2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season was the 38th season of NCAA championship women's college soccer. The season was originally slated to begin on August 20, 2020 and conclude on November 9, 2020. The season was to culminate with the 2020 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament, which was to be held from November 18 to December 13, 2020, with the four-team College Cup.


2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season
On August 13, 2020, the NCAA Tournament, along with all fall sport tournaments, was suspended due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Leading up to the postseason tournament suspension, some conferences had planned to play conference-only matches during the fall season, while some conferences opted to postpone the season to Spring 2021 (February to May 2021). Ultimately, the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 Conference, Southeastern Conference, and the Sun Belt Conference began play for the 2020 fall season; while a handful of programs scheduled competitive fixtures for the fall 2020 season: Navy, Mercer, Middle Tennessee, and UAB.


2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season
On September 16, 2020 the NCAA announced that the spring season would run from February 3 to April 17, 2021, culminating with the NCAA Tournament, which was reduced from 64 to 48 teams for this season only. The postponed NCAA Tournament began on April 30 and ended on May 17, 2021. The ACC, Big 12, SEC, and Sun Belt champions, who will be determined in November, will earn automatic bids into the tournament. Nevertheless, the season began on September 10, 2020, with Appalachian State hosting Pitt, with Pitt winning the match 4–0.


2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season, Preseason, New programs
On November 27, 2017, it was announced that, in 2020, the Tritons of the University of California, San Diego, located in the San Diego, California district of La Jolla, would begin the transition from Division II to Division I as a member of the Big West Conference.


2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season, Preseason, New programs
On January 11, 2019, it was announced that the Trailblazers of Dixie State University of St. George, Utah would begin the transition from Division II to Division I as a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).


2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season, Preseason, New programs
On June 17, 2019, it was announced that the Knights of Bellarmine University of Louisville, Kentucky would begin the transition from Division II to Division I as a member of the ASUN Conference.


2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season, Preseason, New programs
On July 15, 2020, after months of consideration, the NCAA granted the highly unusual request of the University of St. Thomas to move directly from Division III to Division I. The school had already accepted an invitation to join the Summit League, and the Tommies will enter Division I and Summit League competition in 2021.


2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season, Preseason, Impact of COVID-19 on season
For the 2020 season, several changes in how the season began, and how conference play was organized affected the 2020 season.


2020 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament was to be the annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball in the United States. With a field of sixty-four teams, it was supposed to begin on March 16 and conclude with the championship game on April 5.


2020 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament
As with the prior year's format, the eight regional winners would have met in the Elite Eight for the quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship rounds. The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were scheduled to take place again at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, while the championship final was due to take place at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia so as to coincide with the Division I Final Four.


2020 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament
After the announcement of the tournament field on March 8, the entire tournament was cancelled on March 12 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.


2020 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament, Qualification
A total of sixty-four bids were available for the tournament: 21 automatic bids (awarded to the champions of the twenty-one Division II conferences) and 41 at-large bids.


2020 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament, Qualification
The bids are allocated evenly among the eight NCAA-designated regions (Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast, and West), each of which contains either two or three of the twenty-three Division II conferences that sponsor men's basketball (after the Heartland Conference disbanded in 2019, the South Region now features only two conferences). Each region consists of two or three automatic qualifiers (the teams who won their respective conference tournaments) and either five or six at-large bids, awarded regardless of conference affiliation.


2020 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament was due to be the 39th annual tournament hosted by the NCAA to determine the national champion of Division II women's  collegiate basketball in the United States. The tournament, however, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and no champion was crowned for the 2019–20 season.


2020 NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament
The championship rounds were scheduled for the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Alabama.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament was a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division III college basketball in the United States. Featuring sixty-four teams, it began on March 6, 2020, following the 2019–20 season, and was to conclude with the championship game on April 5, 2020.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament
The national quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were to be held at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the site of the 2019 tournament finals, while the championship game was to be played at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, coinciding with the Division I Final Four.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament
As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins University announced that it had chosen not to admit spectators to the first and second-round games hosted there. On March 12, the NCAA announced that the remaining games of the tournament were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament
Sixteen teams had advanced to the third round at the time the tournament was called off.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament, Qualifying teams, Automatic bids (43)
The following 43 teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2020 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's automatic bid.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament, Qualifying teams, At-large bids (21)
The following 21 teams were awarded qualification for the tournament field by the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Committee. The committee evaluated teams on the basis of their win-loss percentage, strength of schedule, head-to-head results, results against common opponents, and results against teams included in the NCAA's final regional rankings. By rule, one bid is reserved for teams in Pool B, which are unaffiliated or whose conference does not yet qualify for an automatic bid (e.g. the Atlantic East Conference).


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was a postseason tournament scheduled for the culmination of the 2019–20 season, the 37th such tournament in NCAA history. It was scheduled to conclude on March 28 at the LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo, New York. On March 12, the NCAA announced that the tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Qualifying teams
Twelve teams qualified for the tournament in the following ways: (Pool A) eight teams will receive bids as a result of being conference tournament champions from conferences that possessed an automatic bid, (Pool C) four additional teams will receive at-large bids based upon their records.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Format
The tournament was to feature four rounds of play. All rounds would have been Single-game elimination.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Format
The top four overall seeds, with at least one coming from each region, received automatic bids into the quarterfinal round and were arranged so that if all were to reach the semifinals, the top seed would play the fourth seed while the second seed would play the third seed.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Format
The two lowest seeded western teams were placed in the first round of the same quarterfinal bracket with the winner advancing to play the top western seed. The remaining western seed was set against the top eastern team in the first round with the winner advancing to play the third eastern seed.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Format
The remaining eastern teams were arranged so that the fifth- and eighth-seeded teams would play with the winner advancing to play the second eastern seed while the sixth- and seventh-seeded teams would play with the winner advancing to play the top eastern seed.


2020 NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, Format
In the First Round and Quarterfinals the higher-seeded team served as host.


2020 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament
The 2020 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament was a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of the women's NCAA Division III college basketball in the United States. Featuring sixty-four teams, it began on March 6, 2020, following the 2019–20 season, and was to conclude with the championship on March 21 at the Capital University Center Performance Arena in Columbus, Ohio; however, on March 12 the tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.


2020 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament, Qualifying teams, Automatic bids (43)
The following 43 teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2018 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's automatic bid.


2020 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament, Qualifying teams, At-large bids (21)
The following 21 teams were awarded qualification for the 2020 NCAA field by the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Committee. The committee evaluated teams on the basis of their win-loss percentage, strength of schedule, head-to-head results, results against common opponents, and results against teams included in the NCAA's final regional rankings.


2020 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans
An All-American team is an honorary sports team composed of the best amateur players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply "All-Americans". Although the honorees generally do not compete together as a unit, the term is used in U.S. team sports to refer to players who are selected by members of the national media. Walter Camp selected the first All-America team in the early days of American football in 1889.


2020 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans
The 2020 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans are honorary lists that include All-American selections from the Associated Press (AP), the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), the Sporting News (TSN), and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) for the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. All selectors choose three teams, while AP also lists honorable mention selections.


2020 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans
The Consensus 2020 College Basketball All-American team was determined by aggregating the results of the four major All-American teams as determined by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since United Press International was replaced by TSN in 1997, the four major selectors have been the aforementioned ones. AP has been a selector since 1948, NABC since 1957 and USBWA since 1960. To earn "consensus" status, a player must win honors based on a point system computed from the four different all-America teams.


2020 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans
The point system consists of three points for first team, two points for second team and one point for third team. No honorable mention or fourth team or lower are used in the computation. The top five totals plus ties are first team and the next five plus ties are second team.


2020 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans
Although the aforementioned lists are used to determine consensus honors, there are numerous other All-American lists. The ten finalists for the John Wooden Award are described as Wooden All-Americans. The ten finalists for the Senior CLASS Award are described as Senior All-Americans. Other All-American lists include those determined by USA Today, Fox Sports, Yahoo! Sports and many others. The scholar-athletes selected by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) are termed Academic All-Americans.


2020 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans, Academic All-Americans
The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced its 15-member 2020 Academic All-America team on March 9, 2020, divided into first, second and third teams with Skylar Mays of LSU chosen as men's college basketball Academic All-American of the Year.


2020 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans, Senior All-Americans
The 10 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, called Senior All-Americans, were announced on February 5, 2020. On March 31, Markus Howard was announced as the recipient, with the first and second teams also announced at that time.


2020 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championship
The 2020 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships were scheduled to be held on April 17–18, 2020, at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. On March 12, 2020, the championships, as well as all other NCAA championships for the remainder of the academic season, were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championship, Championships
On October 31, 2019, it was announced the University of Michigan men's gymnastics team would host the NCAA Championships. Michigan hosted the event on three prior occasions, in 1951, 1971 and 2014.


2020 NCAA Men's Soccer All-Americans
An All-American team is an honorary sports team composed of the best amateur players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply "All-Americans". Although the honorees generally do not compete together as a unit, the term is used in U.S. team sports to refer to players who are selected by members of the national media. Walter Camp selected the first All-America team in the early days of American football in 1889.


2020 NCAA Men's Soccer All-Americans
The 2020 NCAA Men's Soccer All-Americans are honorary lists that include All-American selections from the United Soccer Coaches (USC), Top Drawer Soccer (TDS), Soccer America (TSN), and College Soccer News for the 2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season. All selectors choose at least a first, second, and third 11-man team.


2020 NCAA Men's Soccer All-Americans
Although the aforementioned lists are used to determine consensus honors, there are numerous other All-American lists. The three finalists for the Hermann Trophy are described as Hermann All-Americans. The ten finalists for the Senior CLASS Award are described as Senior All-Americans. Other All-American lists include those determined by Hero Sports and many others. The scholar-athletes selected by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) are termed Academic All-Americans.


2020 NCAA Men's Soccer All-Americans, Individual All-America teams, By player
This list is of players who were named first-team All-Americans by each respective publication.


2020 NCAA Men's Soccer All-Americans, Academic All-Americans
CoSIDA names three Academic All-American teams for the 2020 season. Kyle Hiebert of Missouri State was named the Academic All-American of the Year by CoSIDA.


2020 NCAA Men's Soccer All-Americans, Senior All-Americans
The 10 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award are considered Senior All-Americans.


2020 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship
The 2020 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship occurred from March 18–21, 2021 in Los Angeles, California at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center. This was the 52nd NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship. Six teams participated in this championship. Although this was the 2020 championship, it was played in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rankings before the tournament: No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 California, No. 3 UCLA and No. 4 USC.


2020 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship, Bracket
The championship featured a knockout format where schools that lost were eliminated from the tournament.


2020 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship, Qualification
Automatic qualifications (AQ) were awarded to six conferences. Three conferences, the Golden Coast Conference (GCC), Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) withdrew their automatic qualification. Participating in this year's tournament were teams from the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), and the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). Automatic qualification teams were Bucknell (CWPA), California Baptist (WWPA), and Stanford (MPSF). At-large bids were awarded to California, UCLA and USC from MPSF.


2020 NCAA National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Tournament
The 2020 NCAA National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Tournament was a planned single-elimination tournament by eight schools to determine the national champion of women's NCAA Division I college ice hockey. The quarterfinals were scheduled to be played at the campuses of the seeded teams on March 14, 2020, with the Frozen Four to be played on March 20 and 22, 2020 at Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston University was scheduled to host the tournament, the second time that it would have hosted the Frozen Four. On March 12, the NCAA announced that the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 NCAA National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Tournament, Qualifying teams
In the sixth year under this qualification format, the winners of all four Division I conference tournaments received automatic berths to the NCAA tournament. The other four teams were selected at-large. The top four teams were then seeded and received home ice for the quarterfinals.


2020 NCAA Women's Basketball All-Americans
An All-American team is an honorary sports team composed of the best amateur players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply "All-Americans". Although the honorees generally do not compete together as a unit, the term is used in U.S. team sports to refer to players who are selected by members of the national media. Walter Camp selected the first All-America team in the early days of American football in 1889.


2020 NCAA Women's Basketball All-Americans
The 2020 NCAA Women's Basketball All-Americans are honorary lists that include All-American selections from the Associated Press (AP), the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) for the 2019–20 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. Both AP and USBWA choose three teams, while WBCA lists 10 honorees.


2020 NCAA Women's Basketball All-Americans
A consensus All-America team in women's basketball has never been organized. This differs from the practice in men's basketball, in which the NCAA uses a combination of selections by AP, USBWA, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), and Sporting News to determine a consensus All-America team. The selection of a consensus All-America men's basketball team is possible because all four organizations select at least a first and second team, with only the USBWA not selecting a third team.


2020 NCAA Women's Basketball All-Americans
Before the 2017–18 season, it was impossible for a consensus women's All-America team to be determined because the AP had been the only body that divided its women's selections into separate teams. The USBWA first named separate teams in 2017–18. The women's counterpart to the NABC, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), continues the USBWA's former practice of selecting a single 10-member (plus ties) team. Sporting News does not select an All-America team in women's basketball.


2020 NCAA Women's Basketball All-Americans, Academic All-Americans
The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced its 15-member 2020 Academic All-America team on March 9, 2020, divided into first, second and third teams with Brittany Brewer of Texas Tech chosen as women's college basketball Academic All-American of the Year.


2020 NCAA Women's Basketball All-Americans, Academic All-Americans
When a player is listed with two grade-point averages, the first is her undergraduate GPA. Players listed with two majors separated by a slash are double majors unless explicitly designated as undergraduate and graduate programs.


2020 NCAA Women's Basketball All-Americans, Senior All-Americans
The finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, called Senior All-Americans, were announced on February 5, 2020. Due to a tie in voting, 11 finalists were named instead of the normal 10. On March 31, Sabrina Ionescu was announced as the recipient, with the first and second teams also announced at that time.


2020 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship
The 2020 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships were scheduled to be held on 17–19 April 2020, at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The  championships were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States on March 12.


2020 NCHC Tournament
The 2020 NCHC Tournament was the seventh tournament in league history. It was scheduled to be played between March 13 and 21, 2020. Quarterfinal games were to be played at home team campus sites, while the final four games were to be played at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. On March 12, 2020, NCHC announced that the remainder of the tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, before any games were played.


2020 NCHC Tournament, Format
The first round of the postseason tournament featured a best-of-three games format. All eight conference teams participate in the tournament. Teams are seeded No. 1 through No. 8 according to their final conference standing, with a tiebreaker system used to seed teams with an identical number of points accumulated. The top four seeded teams each earn home ice and host one of the lower seeded teams.


2020 NCHC Tournament, Format
The winners of the first round series advanced to the Xcel Energy Center for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. The Frozen Faceoff uses a single-elimination format. Teams are re-seeded No. 1 through No. 4 according to the final regular season conference standings.


2020 NFL Draft
The 2020 NFL Draft was the 85th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2020 NFL season. The first round was held on April 23, followed by the second and third rounds on April 24. The draft concluded with rounds 4–7 on April 25. The NFL originally planned to hold the event live in Paradise, Nevada, before all public events related to it were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, all team selections took place via videoconferencing with league commissioner Roger Goodell broadcasting picks from his home.


2020 NFL Draft, Format
The host city was chosen among finalists Denver, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Nashville, and Cleveland/Canton in May 2018 during the NFL Spring League Meeting, when Nashville was chosen to host the 2019 draft. However, the host city for 2020 was deferred. After Denver withdrew, citing scheduling conflicts, Las Vegas was chosen as the original host on December 12, 2018, coinciding with the Las Vegas Raiders' arrival in the city.


2020 NFL Draft, Format
Plans were announced for a main stage near the Caesars Forum convention center and a "red carpet" stage for arrivals on a floating platform in front of the Bellagio resort, with players being transported to and from the stage by boat. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL announced on March 16 that it had canceled all public festivities associated with the event.


2020 NFL Draft, Format
Instead, the draft was held remotely, with team coaches and GMs convening via Microsoft Teams due to all team facilities also being closed. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the picks for rounds 1–3 from his home in Bronxville, New York. During the event Goodell announced that Las Vegas would host the 2022 NFL Draft.


2020 NFL Draft, Player selections
The following is the breakdown of the 255 players selected by position:


2020 NFL Draft, Trades within the draft
In the explanations below, (PD) indicates trades completed prior to the start of the draft (i.e. Pre-Draft), while (D) denotes trades that took place during the 2020 draft.


2020 NFL Draft, Media coverage
Coverage of all three days of the draft aired on ABC, ESPN, NFL Network, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN Radio. ESPN and NFL Network aired shared coverage of all three days hosted by Trey Wingo from ESPN's studios in Bristol, which was simulcast by ABC for the third day. Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, and Maria Taylor, all from College GameDay, hosted ABC's telecasts for the first two days. Jennifer Hudson was announced to perform as part of a Draft Preshow on the first day, followed by Kelly Clarkson on the second day and OneRepublic on the third.


2020 NFL Draft, Media coverage
ESPN Deportes provided Spanish language coverage of the draft with Monday Night Football voices Eduardo Varela and Pablo Viruega. ESPN Radio's coverage featured host Dari Nowkhah from ESPN's SEC Network, former general manager Mike Tannenbaum, ESPN New York's Bart Scott (Thursday/Friday), NFL Draft analyst Jim Nagy (Saturday) and reporter Ian Fitzsimmons with updates from Marc Kestecher.


2020 NFL season
The 2020 NFL season was the 101st season of the National Football League (NFL). The regular season started with the NFL Kickoff Game on September 10, in which defending Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City defeated Houston. The season concluded with Tampa Bay defeating Kansas City in Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on February 7, 2021.


2020 NFL season
The Oakland Raiders relocated to Las Vegas for the 2020 season, and are now playing at Allegiant Stadium as the Las Vegas Raiders. After a decades-long controversy, the Washington Redskins retired the use of their name and logo and adopted the name Washington Football Team.


2020 NFL season
The season was impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; the most prominent changes were the cancellation of all preseason games and the 2021 Pro Bowl, the suspension of international games for the year, an allowance for players to opt out of playing the season without violating their contracts (66 players opted out), the playing of games with either a greatly reduced audience or no fans at all, and the postponement and/or rescheduling of multiple games due to positive COVID-19 tests among players and staff. Despite the changes, all 256 regular season games were played within the original 17-week span with no cancellations.


2020 NFL season
This was also the final season played under the 16 game-schedule, as the schedule was expanded to 17 games in 2021.


2020 NFL season, Player movement
The 2020 NFL league year and trading period began on March 18. On March 16, teams were allowed to exercise options for 2020 on players with option clauses in their contracts, submit qualifying offers to their pending restricted free agents, and submit a Minimum Salary Tender to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with expiring 2019 contracts and fewer than three accrued seasons of free agent credit. Teams were required to be under the salary cap using the "top 51" definition (in which the 51 highest-paid players on the team's payroll must have a combined salary cap). On March 16, clubs were allowed to contact and begin contract negotiations with the agents of players who were set to become unrestricted free agents.


2020 NFL season, Player movement, Free agency
Free agency began on March 18. Notable players to change teams included:


2020 NFL season, Player movement, Trades
The following notable trades were made during the 2020 league year:


2020 NFL season, Player movement, Notable retirements
The following notable players retired prior to the 2020 season:


2020 NFL season, Player movement, Draft
The Draft took place on April 23–25, via videoconferencing; it was originally scheduled to take place in Paradise, Nevada, but was moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 5, the NFL announced that the draft would be held virtually with coaches and GMs conducting it via phone and internet from home due to team facilities also being closed. Goodell unveiled the first-round picks from his home in Bronxville, New York. Cincinnati, by virtue of having the worst record in 2019, held the first overall selection and selected QB Joe Burrow out of LSU.


2020 NFL season, Player movement, Opt-outs
The NFL and the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) agreed on July 24 to allow players to opt out of playing the season; 66 players opted out by the August 6 deadline. Players who opted out were not paid for the 2020 season, but received a salary advance of $150,000 taken from their 2021 salary. Players who opted out due to medical conditions received a $350,000 stipend which was not taken from their 2021 salary. The following is a list of all players who opted out:


2020 NFL season, Officiating changes
Referee Walt Anderson was promoted to NFL senior vice president in charge of the officiating training and development program, a newly created position that works independently from the league's head of officiating, Alberto Riveron. Land Clark was promoted to referee to replace Anderson. Clark previously served as a referee in the Pac-12 Conference before joining the NFL in 2018 as a field judge.


2020 NFL season, Officiating changes
Former coach Perry Fewell was named NFL senior vice president of officiating administration. This position oversees the day-to-day operations of the officiating department and is the primary contact for coaches' and general managers' officiating questions, among other duties.


2020 NFL season, Officiating changes
The NFL and the NFL Referees Association agreed on August 9 to allow officials to opt out of working the 2020 season. Officials who opted out received a $30,000 stipend and guaranteed job protection for 2021. Five on-field officials –  line judge Jeff Bergman, back judge Steve Freeman, field judge Greg Gautreaux, field judge Joe Larrew, and back judge Tony Steratore –  opted out for the season by the August 13 deadline.


2020 NFL season, Rule changes, Permanent changes
The following rule changes for the 2020 season were approved at the NFL Owners' Meeting in May:


2020 NFL season, Rule changes, Temporary rules for 2020 season
The following temporary rule changes were made on September 9 and were only in place for 2020:  The rule changes involving injured reserve and practice squad transactions remained in place for 2021.


2020 NFL season, Preseason
Training camps were held from late July through August. By league order, all training camps were held at teams' regular practice facilities.


2020 NFL season, Preseason
The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game was scheduled for August 6 between Dallas and Pittsburgh, but was canceled on June 25 due to the pandemic. On July 3, the NFLPA voted to cancel the preseason, which was agreed to by the league later that month.


2020 NFL season, Regular season
The NFL released its regular-season schedule on May 7. The season was played over a 17-week schedule beginning on September 10. Each of the league's 32 teams played 16 games, with one bye week for each team. The regular season concluded with a full slate of 16 games on January 3, 2021, all of which were intra-division matchups, as it had been since 2010.


2020 NFL season, Regular season
The NFL suspended its international games for the season due to travel restrictions imposed because of the pandemic; the league had previously announced that Jacksonville would host two games at Wembley Stadium in London, Atlanta and Miami would each host a game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, and Arizona would host a game at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. These games were moved back to the teams' respective home stadiums.


2020 NFL season, Regular season
Using contingencies similar to those built into the 2011 schedule in the event that season's lockout lasted into September, the 2020 schedule allowed for the possibility that the season could be delayed and shortened in the event that conditions were unsafe to begin play as scheduled. Every game in Week 2 featured teams that share the same bye week later in the season, which would have allowed these games to be made up on the teams' original byes.


2020 NFL season, Regular season
Weeks 3 and 4 were set up so that there were no divisional games and that every team at home in Week 3 was away in Week 4 and vice versa. This would have allowed the NFL to cancel these two weeks without eliminating any divisional games and keeping each team's home and away games balanced. These scheduling changes, along with eliminating the week off before the Super Bowl and moving the Super Bowl back three weeks, would have allowed the NFL to play a 14-game schedule beginning October 29 while still playing the Super Bowl in February.


2020 NFL season, Regular season, Scheduling formula
Under the NFL scheduling formula, each team played the other three teams in its own division twice. In addition, a team played against all four teams in one division from each conference. The remaining two games on a team's schedule were against the two remaining teams in the same conference that finished in the same position in their respective divisions the previous season (e.g., the team that finished fourth in its division will play all three other teams in the conference that also finished fourth). The division pairings for 2020 are as follows:


2020 NFL season, Regular season, Scheduling formula
Intra-conferenceAFC East vs AFC WestAFC North vs AFC SouthNFC East vs NFC WestNFC North vs NFC South


2020 NFL season, Regular season, Scheduling formula
Inter-conferenceAFC East vs NFC WestAFC North vs NFC EastAFC South vs NFC NorthAFC West vs NFC South


2020 NFL season, Regular season, Scheduling formula
With the final round of the 2020 Masters Tournament (whose rights are held by CBS) rescheduled from its normal April date to November 15, CBS was not given any 1:00 p.m. ET games that day, which fell during Week 10. CBS was given three games in the 4:05 p.m. ET slot, while Fox was given eight Sunday games, including three AFC-away games which generally air on CBS.


2020 NFL season, Regular season, Saturday flexible scheduling
When the entire season schedule was released on May 7, the league announced that in Weeks 15 and 16, two or three of five designated games would be moved to Saturday. A total of four games were broadcast by the NFL Network and one was broadcast by Amazon Prime Video.


2020 NFL season, Regular season, Saturday flexible scheduling
Week 15On November 24, the NFL announced that two games would be moved to Saturday, December 19: Buffalo–Denver at 4:30 p.m. ET and Carolina–Green Bay at 8:15 p.m. ET. The three other games that the NFL had the option of scheduling on Saturday (Detroit–Tennessee, Houston–Indianapolis, and New York Jets–Los Angeles Rams) remained on December 20.


2020 NFL season, Regular season, Saturday flexible scheduling
Week 16On November 30, the NFL announced that three games would be moved to Saturday, December 26: Tampa Bay–Detroit at 1:00 p.m ET, San Francisco–Arizona at 4:30 p.m, and Miami–Las Vegasat 8:15 p.m. The San Francisco–Arizona game was assigned to Amazon. The two other games the NFL had the option of scheduling on Saturday (Cleveland–New York Jets and Denver–Los Angeles Chargers) remained on December 27.


2020 NFL season, Postseason
The 2020 playoffs began on the weekend of January 9–10, 2021 with the Wild Card Round. Under the new NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the playoffs expanded to 14 teams. There were three Wild Card teams per conference and only the top seed in each conference received a first-round bye. Three games were played each day.


2020 NFL season, Postseason
In the Divisional Round on January 16–17, the top seed in the conference hosted the worst remaining seed, and the other two remaining teams played each other, with the better seed hosting. The winners of those games advanced to the Conference Championships on for January 24. Super Bowl LV was held February 7 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.


2020 NFL season, Postseason
In case a COVID-19 outbreak forces the postponements of playoff games, the bye week after the Conference Championships could have been eliminated and the Super Bowl could have been moved back as far as February 28.


2020 NFL season, Postseason
The 2021 Pro Bowl was originally scheduled for January 31 at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. However, on October 14, the game was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. Pro Bowl rosters for the 2020 season were released on December 21, and the league plans to hold a virtual event to honor the players chosen. Players selected were used in a broadcast playthrough in the video game Madden NFL 21 instead. This marked the first time since the 1949 season in which a Pro Bowl is not held.


2020 NFL season, Notable events, New Collective Bargaining Agreement
In March 2020, the NFL and the NFLPA agreed to a new CBA that will run through 2030. The previous CBA, signed in 2011, would have expired after this season.


2020 NFL season, Notable events, Washington Redskins' name change
On July 1, following renewed attention to racial justice in wake of the George Floyd protests, a letter signed by 87 shareholders and investors was sent to sponsors of the then-Washington Redskins and NFL including Nike, FedEx, and Pepsi urging them to cut ties unless the team name was changed. Around the same time, several retail companies began to remove Redskins merchandise from their stores. In response, the team underwent a review of its name and logo. On July 23, the team announced that it would retire its name and logo. The team began playing as the "Washington Football Team" pending a permanent name being chosen.


2020 NFL season, Notable events, Shooting of Jacob Blake
In response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, Detroit canceled its scheduled practice on August 25. Nine other teams canceled their scheduled practices on August 27. Several teams that did not cancel practice issued statements about unity. The Jacksonville Jaguars canceled their scheduled afternoon activities.


2020 NFL season, Awards, Individual season awards
The 10th Annual NFL Honors, honoring the best players and plays from the 2020 season, was held on February 6, 2021, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.


2020 NFL season, Awards, All-Pro team
The following players were named First Team All-Pro by the Associated Press:


2020 NFL season, Awards, Players of the week/month
The following were named the top performers during the 2020 season:


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Head coaches, Off-season
Fewell, the defensive backs coach, took over on an interim basis and went 0–4 the rest of the season.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Head coaches, Off-season
Rhule, who spent the previous seven seasons as college football head coach of Temple and Baylor with a 47–43 (.522) record, was hired on January 7.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Head coaches, Off-season
Stefanski, who previously served as the offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, was hired on January 13. He was on the Vikings staff for 14 years. This is his first head coaching position at any level.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Head coaches, Off-season
McCarthy was hired as the Cowboys' new coach on January 6. In 12+ seasons as the Green Bay Packers head coach, he had a record of 135–85–2 (.613) with nine playoff appearances and one Super Bowl title.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Head coaches, Off-season
Judge was hired on January 8, after serving as the special teams coordinator for the New England Patriots from 2015 to 2019, as well as the wide receivers coach in 2019. This is his first head coaching position at any level.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Head coaches, Off-season
Callahan, the team's assistant head coach/offensive line coach, was previously the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in 2002 and 2003, with a record of 15–17 (.469) and one Super Bowl appearance; he finished out the 2019 season with a 3–8 (.273) record.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Head coaches, Off-season
Rivera, who had spent most of the previous nine seasons as head coach of the Carolina Panthers, was hired on January 1, 2020.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Head coaches, In-season
Crennel, the team's associate head coach, was previously the head coach of the Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Chiefs, with a combined record of 28–55 (.337) and no playoff appearances. At age 73, he is the oldest head coach in NFL history.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Head coaches, In-season
Morris, the team's defensive coordinator, was previously the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with a record of 17–31 (.354) and no playoff appearances.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Head coaches, In-season
Bevell, the team's offensive coordinator, was promoted to interim head coach. This is his first head coaching position.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Front office personnel, In-season
Easterby took over GM duties for the rest of the season.


2020 NFL season, Head coaching and front office personnel changes, Front office personnel, In-season
Baalke, the team's director of player personnel, would serve as interim GM through the end of the season.


2020 NFL season, Stadiums, COVID-19 restrictions
The NFL allowed teams to admit spectators to games if allowed under local health orders. A total of 19 teams admitted spectators at a reduced capacity for at least one regular season home game. Two additional teams which did not admit spectators during the regular season admitted spectators for postseason games. Six teams allowed spectators for all home games. The majority of teams played without spectators through September and into October while admitting spectators later in the season. Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league's competition committee assessed that having spectators did not create a competitive advantage despite some coaches and executives disagreeing.


2020 NFL season, Stadiums, COVID-19 restrictions
If spectators were admitted, they had to wear face masks and, in some stadiums, were required to sign a liability waiver. On-field entertainment was prohibited, including cheerleaders, mascots, marching bands, flag wavers, and end zone-to-end zone American flag displays. To reduce the proximity of spectators to the field, the league required the first six to eight rows of seats to be blocked with tarps. Halftime shows could be held, but only off-site, or as done on Thanksgiving, pre-recorded before the game.


2020 NFL season, Stadiums, COVID-19 restrictions
On May 13, California officials indicated that they might not allow the Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams or San Francisco 49ers to play at their home stadiums. Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium and Arizona's State Farm Stadium were listed as possible relocation sites for these teams.


2020 NFL season, Stadiums, COVID-19 restrictions
All three teams were ultimately allowed to begin the season at their home stadiums without spectators; however, the 49ers were forced to move their final three home games to State Farm Stadium after Santa Clara County, where the 49ers' home stadium is located, banned all contact sports in response to a local rise of COVID-19 cases.


2020 NFL season, Stadiums, COVID-19 restrictions
The NFL initially mandated the use of artificial crowd noise inside all stadiums with attendance below 10,000, consisting of non-dynamic ambience played at 70 decibels. The audio was monitored by the league and teams were subject to sanctions if they were found to have manipulated it (such as by changing its volume). On September 25, these rules were adjusted, allowing the ambiance to be played at up to 80 decibels. The volume must be determined before the game and remain consistent through the entire game. The minimum attendance required to turn off the crowd noise was reduced to 2,500. As part of Microsoft's sponsorship of the NFL, a "Fan Mosaic" feature powered by Microsoft Teams was featured on stadium video boards during select games.


2020 NFL season, Uniforms, Uniform changes
Eight teams unveiled uniform changes, ranging from minor adjustments to full rebrands.


2020 NFL season, Media, Broadcast rights, Television
This was the seventh year under the current broadcast contracts with CBS, ESPN, Fox, and NBC. This includes "cross-flexing" (switching) Sunday afternoon games between CBS and Fox before or during the season, regardless of the conference of the visiting team. NBC continues to air Sunday Night Football and the Kickoff Game. ESPN continued to air Monday Night Football and a Wild Card Game, with 3 MNF and the Wild Card games being simulcast on ABC. ESPN and ABC were also scheduled to air the 2021 Pro Bowl, but the game was canceled. Fox continues to air Thursday Night Football alongside NFL Network, Amazon Prime Video and Twitch. CBS and NBC acquired rights to the two new Wild Card Round games, with each paying around $70 million for the additional game.


2020 NFL season, Media, Broadcast rights, Television
CBS televised Super Bowl LV. NBC was originally scheduled to broadcast the game under the current rotation. However, NBC traded the game to CBS in exchange for Super Bowl LVI, which will fall during the 2022 Winter Olympics, the first to be scheduled during an ongoing Olympic Games (NBC also holds the U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics).


2020 NFL season, Media, Broadcast rights, Television
To coincide with the 50th anniversary of Monday Night Football, ESPN simulcast the Week 2 New Orleans–Las Vegas game as an ESPN Megacast on ABC, marking ABC's first regular season broadcast since 2005. ESPN2 aired an alternate broadcast with various guests joining throughout the game. Two more MNF games were simulcast on ABC on December 7 and 28.


2020 NFL season, Media, Broadcast rights, Television
As of the 2019 season, local stations in markets with NFL teams have been allowed on to air another NFL game opposite the game involving that city's home team on a limited basis. Cities were initially limited to two such games per season. This was expanded to four in 2020.


2020 NFL season, Media, Broadcast rights, Television
Prior to this season, the league had the option to cancel DirecTV's exclusive contract to air NFL Sunday Ticket, the league's out-of-market sports package. However, the NFL did not opt out.