The commissioners of the major college football conferences told vice-president Mike Pence on Wednesday there would be no football this fall until campuses were deemed safe for students following the coronavirus pandemic.

The 10 commissioners — representing the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, Conference USA, Sun Belt, American Athletic, Mid-American and Mountain West — as well as Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick spoke to Pence via a 30-minute conference call. The call took place as part of the government’s exploration of when it might be safe to “re-open” to nation’s economy.

“(We) made the point we were concerned and wanted to get back to having kids attending college and opening up our colleges and universities,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told the Associated Press. “That until that happened we weren’t going to be having any sports.”

American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco told the AP he and his colleagues sought to impress upon Pence the difference between college and professional sports, most notably that colleges cannot quarantine athletes (who are also students) the way pro leagues could if needed. Various professional leagues, including the PGA Tour and Major League Baseball, have tentative plans to try and play or resume their 2020 seasons without fans in attendance.

Pence was “hopeful and optimistic” and asked good questions, Bowlsby said. All major American professional and college sports have been shut down since mid-March due to COVID-19, resulting in the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournament, College World Series and spring football practice.

Fall football practice typically begins in August, with the season set to open on Labor Day weekend. However, most players are on-campus beginning in June to participate in voluntary workouts with teammates, as well as attend classes.

Most college campuses around the country are closed through the end of May, some longer than that. Students have been taking classes online, and will continue to do so indefinitely.

Also this week, the commissioners of the “Group of 5” conferences — the American, the Sun Belt, Conference USA, Mountain West and Mid-American — have petitioned the NCAA for “temporarily relief” from financial aid and football attendance requirements. Schools are required to sponsor 16 inter-collegiate sports and provide 200 athletic scholarship for membership in Division I, and must draw an average of 15,000 fans per game to play in the Football Bowl Sub-division.

Various Division I schools have made the decision to drop athletic programs due to the budget crunch caused by COVID-19. Cincinnati has dropped men’s soccer, while Old Dominion cut wrestling.

“Among the financial challenges being faced include significant decreases in state appropriations, substantial losses in endowment value, and a downturn in philanthropic activity,” the commissioners wrote, via the AP. “An already trying environment for enrollment is expected to see even more sizeable reductions, not to mention the continuing trend in deep reductions in the enrollment of international students. Finally, all of this is playing out with no ability to predict when normal operations might resume.”

The NCAA has granted spring sports athletes whose seasons were canceled an additional year of eligibility, but has left the decision on how to pay for it up to the schools. Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez announced last week that his school’s 35 senior spring sports athletes would not be invited back for 2021.

The cancellation of the basketball tournament reduced the NCAA’s annual distribution to Division I members from a total of $600 million to a total of $225 million. That means each of the 347 Division I schools received only around $640,000, as opposed to $1.7 million each had the tournament been played.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.