Competition and safety led to the cancellation of season
NORFOLK — It wasn’t a matter of money, logistics or even potential opponents.
Old Dominion’s decision not to play football this spring, athletic director Wood Selig said, was strictly related to competition and safety.
Selig, whose department elected to postpone all fall sports until the spring in mid-August because of concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, announced last week that football would not be played until the fall of 2021.
The Monarchs, along with Connecticut and New Mexico State, are one of three FBS teams with no plans to play this fall. That means spring football, in Selig’s opinion, would’ve been rendered rather meaningless for any competing FBS programs as lower-level FCS teams vied for championships.
Other ODU teams, meanwhile, are scheduled to play semi-normal seasons.
“Every single fall sport will have a chance to compete for a national championship this spring,” Selig said. “Football will not. There’ll be no bowl games. There’ll be no national championship unless you’re at the FCS level.
“It would be basically a glorified scrimmage.”
Selig, who has run ODU’s athletic
department for 11 years, didn’t make the decision unilaterally. He consulted with athletes, coaches and medical experts to reach the conclusion that it was best for the football team, which has yet to play a game under first-year coach Ricky Rahne, to wait.
Speculation that ODU, which lacks the lucrative TV contracts of Power Five conferences, would operate at a financial deficit by playing in the spring never came into play, Selig said.
“That has never even been evaluated,” he said. “That hasn’t been part of any of our discussion or thought process. I don’t know if we would stand to make money or lose money. We haven’t done that analysis.”
Under the watch of Rahne, a former Penn State assistant, the Monarchs have been going through twice-weekly drills while maintaining maximum social distance and other safety measures. They’re lifting weights three days a week, with plans to soon start implementing game plans.
Selig has watched as other programs have sputtered to false starts to their seasons. In Conference USA alone, Rice and Florida Atlantic have yet to play a game, and Charlotte and Florida International have managed to play just once.
NFL teams, operating in more of a so-called “bubble” than is possible on a college campus, are falling victim to COVID outbreaks that have affected scheduling adversely. Only the NBA and WNBA, whose players are isolated in designated locations, have managed to play uninterrupted.
Citing those examples, Selig said he didn’t want the Monarchs to have to guess.
“We felt like it was important to introduce as much certainty in a very uncertain world by pausing fall sports,” he said. “We still feel that that is our best course of action.
“It’s a season of make it up as you go along. That’s what everyone’s doing. It’s total uncertainty, while we have complete certainty.”
Selig credited C-USA commissioner Judy MacLeod for allowing member schools to make their own decisions and ODU president John
Broderick for putting the safety of the players first and not being afraid to go against the national grain.
Operating under a strict hiring freeze, the athletic department has even managed to avoid layoffs and furloughs, thanks largely to the generosity of its donors and sponsors. The department recently received a $5 million gift from a benefactor Selig declined to name.
Instead of asking for refunds, about a third of the football team’s season-ticket holders elected to turn their purchases over to the school as donations to be put toward fiscal year 2021.
As for being one of just a handful of programs electing to sit out the truncated fall football season, Selig said it’s part of ODU’s DNA.
The school started in 1930 as a two-year division of William & Mary before becoming its own institution.
“We’ve made a history out of going our own way,” Selig said.
“That’s been kind of an attitude, a survivor attitude, that’s permeated Old Dominion since our inception.”