We are no closer today than we were yesterday when it comes to knowing when college football will return following the coronavirus pandemic, but there was quite a flurry of activity surrounding the topic on Wednesday.

The biggest news of the day stemmed from a conference call between Vice President Mike Pence and members of the College Football Playoff Management Committee, which is comprised of 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick.

According to numerous reports, Pence convened the meeting to get a feel for when college football's leaders would feel comfortable with a return to the sport. And the primary message delivered from the commissioners was that football won't be played this fall if students have not returned to on-campus studies.

"Our message was, we need to get universities and colleges back open, that we were education-based programs, and we weren't going to have sports until we had something closer to normal college going on," Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby told CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd.

According to the Associated Press, the commissioners told Pence they want college football to start at the same time in every region of the country.

“We talked a little about whether there would be a national policy because, obviously, if governors have different policies you’re going to have some issues,” American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco said. “If California isn’t allowing football and Ohio is, that’s going to be issue for what is obviously a national enterprise.”

College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock, who also was on the conference call, told Yahoo Sports he was impressed by how receptive Pence was to the group's concerns. He added that college football's leaders still have every hope of playing the season and playoff, if at all possible.

“We are planning for a CFP this year, and I was glad to know that Mr. Pence understands how important college football is," Hancock said.

In other college football news related to the topic, ESPN personality Kirk Herbstreit backtracked on an earlier statement he made about being "shocked" if college football was played in 2020.

During a video interview with Maryland coach Mike Locksley, Hebstreit said he now is convinced that some type of college season will take place: "My feeling is, come Hell or high water, they're going to play football. I think they're willing to go all the way to making it a spring sport ... Two-a-days in February, games in March and April and May, bowl games in June."

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