Post by aggierattler on Jul 22, 2020 19:06:53 GMT -5
SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland Discusses the Decision to Play Spring Football
From College AD Nightcap
July 22, 2020
Powered by Nevco, A New Gameday from CollegeAD focusing on how athletic departments are working towards the eventual return of sports and what that will look like on game day. Southwestern Athletic Conference Commissioner, Dr. Charles McClelland, joins us this week to discuss the SWAC's decision to postpone all fall sports until the spring semester.
McClelland started the conversation by saying SWAC officials have stayed in constant contact with each other via Zoom and other meeting platforms. He says they’ve maintained communication throughout the pandemic and came up with several plans to ensure the safety of student-athletes and staff within the conference.
“We had plans to start on time, we had plans to push it back a week or two, all of these plans have been discussed. We put a COVID-19 panel together, filled with medical experts. We had weekly calls with all of the conference commissioners. We were just trying to get all of the information we could to make an informed decision.”
He explained that as of two weeks ago, they decided as a conference to postpone their student-athletes coming into campus for workouts and gave themselves a cushion to make a final decision because they had no student-athletes on campus yet. McClelland said the decision to postpone until spring started to take shape around two weeks ago as well.
“Our drop-dead date was October 17. So, for that to happen we would have to have conditioning workouts about the third week in August. That meant we had to be full strength 3 weeks from now. It became clear about 2 weeks ago we would not be able to meet that deadline.”
McClelland said that the chair of athletic directors, Jackson State's Ashley Robinson, really led the charge and got the Athletic Directors on the same page and agreed on the plan that pushes the season to the spring. The SWAC's return-to-play plan calls for a seven-game football schedule after an eight-week training period that would begin in January. League schools would play six conference games and have the option to play one non-conference game. This plan assumes the pandemic is under control by the Spring, McClelland explained.
“What we decided to do what fit it into a spring football concept. People talk about the challenges of overlaying fall sports on spring but we felt like we had a blueprint because we have spring football anyway. We feel like it’s a viable path forward.”
He went on to explain that they took a lot of guidance from the NCAA and medical experts. He mentioned that the pandemic itself will dictate how this plays out. He said they wanted to make sure their players had time to get themselves conditioned for the season ahead. He said a lot of the data and timeline of conditioning came from Dr. Brian Hainline with the NCAA. He says this timeline will also give the SWAC time to get into their basketball schedule and they did not want to overlay football on top of the height of basketball. He said within the plan for spring football there’s a week off scheduled for the basketball tournament.
“There are dates in there that will allow our schools to focus primarily on basketball. Obviously, there is more that goes into a full football game than just a spring scrimmage but it gave us a blueprint on how to move forward. I’m not saying there’s not going to be bumps in the road and we’re not going to have to make adjustments, but we all felt comfortable that this was a viable way forward.”
McClelland reiterated the plan is fluid and the pandemic will ultimately dictate how the plan unfolds. He said they are extremely hopeful that the vaccine and trials that are taking place now and he thinks this plan will give experts time to make progress and hopefully see numbers decline in time for spring.
McClelland explained that keeping an enthusiastic game day crowd in the picture did play a part in their decision making. They are hoping if the pandemic is more under control by the spring that many of the elements of a SWAC game day will remain intact. Battle of the bands, tailgating, etc.
“When you talk about black college football, it’s that entire package, and the bands are such a significant part. So, when you talk about bands not traveling, and that’s what we were hearing that some bands were not going to participate at home games, and we already had a no travel rule for our bands in the SWAC. There were pieces of the puzzle we had to figure out, but absolutely no question about it, we want a full robust football season and we felt like the spring was the opportunity to do it. We had to take into consideration the health and safety of not only our student-athletes but the fans as well.”
In addition to football, fall sports that would be impacted are cross country, women soccer and women’s volleyball. McClelland said they plan to play those sports in the spring as well. He said they are still formalizing those plans and they do have some preliminary schedules already in the works. He hopes to release those plans within the next two weeks.
He ended the conversation by saying his one message he is constantly driving home is safety. He explained that he has two college-age sons that play sports for their universities and he believes ADs and conference commissioners need to view all student-athletes as their children. If he believes, as a parent, it’s not safe for his sons, then it’s not safe for other student-athletes.
“I’m going to protect my two children and I have the same responsibility to protect other parent’s children as well. My decision will be driven by that one philosophy."
From College AD Nightcap
July 22, 2020
Powered by Nevco, A New Gameday from CollegeAD focusing on how athletic departments are working towards the eventual return of sports and what that will look like on game day. Southwestern Athletic Conference Commissioner, Dr. Charles McClelland, joins us this week to discuss the SWAC's decision to postpone all fall sports until the spring semester.
McClelland started the conversation by saying SWAC officials have stayed in constant contact with each other via Zoom and other meeting platforms. He says they’ve maintained communication throughout the pandemic and came up with several plans to ensure the safety of student-athletes and staff within the conference.
“We had plans to start on time, we had plans to push it back a week or two, all of these plans have been discussed. We put a COVID-19 panel together, filled with medical experts. We had weekly calls with all of the conference commissioners. We were just trying to get all of the information we could to make an informed decision.”
He explained that as of two weeks ago, they decided as a conference to postpone their student-athletes coming into campus for workouts and gave themselves a cushion to make a final decision because they had no student-athletes on campus yet. McClelland said the decision to postpone until spring started to take shape around two weeks ago as well.
“Our drop-dead date was October 17. So, for that to happen we would have to have conditioning workouts about the third week in August. That meant we had to be full strength 3 weeks from now. It became clear about 2 weeks ago we would not be able to meet that deadline.”
McClelland said that the chair of athletic directors, Jackson State's Ashley Robinson, really led the charge and got the Athletic Directors on the same page and agreed on the plan that pushes the season to the spring. The SWAC's return-to-play plan calls for a seven-game football schedule after an eight-week training period that would begin in January. League schools would play six conference games and have the option to play one non-conference game. This plan assumes the pandemic is under control by the Spring, McClelland explained.
“What we decided to do what fit it into a spring football concept. People talk about the challenges of overlaying fall sports on spring but we felt like we had a blueprint because we have spring football anyway. We feel like it’s a viable path forward.”
He went on to explain that they took a lot of guidance from the NCAA and medical experts. He mentioned that the pandemic itself will dictate how this plays out. He said they wanted to make sure their players had time to get themselves conditioned for the season ahead. He said a lot of the data and timeline of conditioning came from Dr. Brian Hainline with the NCAA. He says this timeline will also give the SWAC time to get into their basketball schedule and they did not want to overlay football on top of the height of basketball. He said within the plan for spring football there’s a week off scheduled for the basketball tournament.
“There are dates in there that will allow our schools to focus primarily on basketball. Obviously, there is more that goes into a full football game than just a spring scrimmage but it gave us a blueprint on how to move forward. I’m not saying there’s not going to be bumps in the road and we’re not going to have to make adjustments, but we all felt comfortable that this was a viable way forward.”
McClelland reiterated the plan is fluid and the pandemic will ultimately dictate how the plan unfolds. He said they are extremely hopeful that the vaccine and trials that are taking place now and he thinks this plan will give experts time to make progress and hopefully see numbers decline in time for spring.
McClelland explained that keeping an enthusiastic game day crowd in the picture did play a part in their decision making. They are hoping if the pandemic is more under control by the spring that many of the elements of a SWAC game day will remain intact. Battle of the bands, tailgating, etc.
“When you talk about black college football, it’s that entire package, and the bands are such a significant part. So, when you talk about bands not traveling, and that’s what we were hearing that some bands were not going to participate at home games, and we already had a no travel rule for our bands in the SWAC. There were pieces of the puzzle we had to figure out, but absolutely no question about it, we want a full robust football season and we felt like the spring was the opportunity to do it. We had to take into consideration the health and safety of not only our student-athletes but the fans as well.”
In addition to football, fall sports that would be impacted are cross country, women soccer and women’s volleyball. McClelland said they plan to play those sports in the spring as well. He said they are still formalizing those plans and they do have some preliminary schedules already in the works. He hopes to release those plans within the next two weeks.
He ended the conversation by saying his one message he is constantly driving home is safety. He explained that he has two college-age sons that play sports for their universities and he believes ADs and conference commissioners need to view all student-athletes as their children. If he believes, as a parent, it’s not safe for his sons, then it’s not safe for other student-athletes.
“I’m going to protect my two children and I have the same responsibility to protect other parent’s children as well. My decision will be driven by that one philosophy."