SWAC opts to shift fall sports to spring because of COVID-19
The Southwestern Athletic Conference on Monday became the latest conference to move its fall athletic calendar to the spring of 2021 because of concerns related to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The safety of its studentathletes was at the forefront of the decision.
“We’re still going to play football. It’s just a matter of moving it to the spring,” Texas Southern football coach Clarence McKinney said. “I like the decision. It gives us a chance to slow down and come up with a true plan to protect our student-athletes.”
Texas Southern, along with Prairie View A&M, is part of the SWAC’s five-state footprint that includes schools in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. Other fall sports impacted in the move are volleyball, cross country and soccer.
A part of the Football Championship Subdivision, the SWAC will go to a seven-game schedule in the spring of 2021, with the conference championship game hopefully to be played no later than April 30. Each football team will play six conference games (four divisional and two nondivisional) with an option to play one nonconference game.
“At this point in time, it wasn’t about football,” Prairie View football coach Eric Dooley said. “It was about how are you doing. How are your families doing? You just regroup and come back and switch it from the fall to the spring and then the spring to the fall.
“It’s good to know that the individuals (in the SWAC office) understand the magnitude of what’s taking place right now. I know it’s a game that we all love, but just as we were able to replace the sched
ule, you can’t replace a human. That was first and foremost.”
There will be an eight-week training period for football starting the last week of January or first week of February. Details concerning the other fall sports are still being worked out.
Monday’s decision was made by the SWAC council of presidents and chancellors, which last month accepted Florida schools Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman for membership starting later in 2021.
Of all the options available concerning fall sports, moving the seasons back made the most sense for the SWAC representatives.
“It was a difficult decision, but it was the right decision,” SWAC commissioner Dr. Charles McClelland said. “Given where we are with the numbers, it is absolutely the right decision. We hate to disrupt fall, but we don’t want to put anybody in jeopardy. We don’t want to put our ability to have sports over our ability to do what’s right, and that is to make sure that people are safe.
“Although it will be different looking in the spring, we feel that’s our best opportunity to have fans in the stands and have a full, although reduced, experience for our student-athletes, fans and all involved to be able to enjoy all our fall sports.”
None of the 10 SWAC members has had student-athletes on its campus since March. TSU football players have been working out remotely. All SWAC athletes were to report to campus Saturday.
“The players want to play, but they are also concerned about getting sick,” McKinney said. “You look at some of the (Power Five) schools that have been training this summer that have had to stop because they lost 25-30 players due to COVID for a two-week quarantine. If that happens during the season, that can be very hurtful for a team.”
McClelland said there are SWAC institutions positioned to test athletes for COVID-19. Two institutions have COVID-19 testing machines. However, cost of testing was a concern.
“But the overall prevailing factor is even with testing, we want to make sure that we are able to protect not only our student-athletes but our fans, the officials and everyone that has involvement with intercollegiate athletics,” McClelland said. “We just felt it was prudent on our part to take a step back and move it (football) to the spring. Just get everybody an opportunity to try to get these numbers down, find a vaccine and get COVID under control.”
The decision to move back the season for each fall sport met with the approval of TSU athletic director Kevin Granger.
“It’s a decision that we definitely support from TSU athletics,” Granger said. “We didn’t think that we should be taking the risk of putting our student-athletes in jeopardy. We didn’t have the safety protocols in place where we could guarantee their safety.
“It’s an adjustment for all the sports involved that got affected. It’s a new terrain that (none) of us have been down. It’s a new day in time where we won’t be having sports in the fall. And then we will be looking at playing all of them in the spring, which will be another adjustment.”
The SWAC’s original 2020 nonconference football schedule had Alcorn State at Auburn on Sept. 5, Prairie View at TCU on Sept. 12 and Alabama State at Texas Tech on Sept. 12. The SWAC will lose out on several revenue-generating games.
“It varies from institution to institution,” McClelland said. “There are some institutions that bring in a considerable amount of revenue given the games that they play and the game guarantees. So going to a conference-only schedule will definitely hurt us financially. We’ll be fine, we’ll survive, and hopefully we’ll be able to put out a very good product come spring.”
Last Thursday, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference canceled its fall sports because of COVID-19. The winners of the SWAC and MEAC annually play in the Celebration Bowl. Previously, the Ivy League, Patriot League and Colonel Athletic Conference canceled their respective fall football seasons.