Big East planning variety of scenarios for upcoming year
UConn ready to return during uncertain times
The Big East had insurance that covered a pandemic, which softened the blow of prematurely ending its men's basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden in March.
But it never could have prepared for the fallout of the crippling coronavirus crisis.
There's no clear path to recovery ahead during these uncertain times. The fallout could be felt all the way into college basketball season.
The fall sports season already is in jeopardy. The Big East will make a decision by late June or early July.
"This conference has been through a great deal in its first 41 years," Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said Friday during a Zoom call with media members. "And yet I don't think even (Big East founder) Dave Gavitt, the great visionary that he was, could have predicted the turn of events that we're all grappling with right now."
A heck of a time for UConn to be returning to the conference.
The Huskies will officially become a Big East member on July 1, marking the end of their American Athletic Conference affiliation.
"We have so much to look forward to the return of our Big East charter member, the University of Connecticut, to our league that is set to go on July 1st," Ackerman said. "UConn, of course, brings four national titles in men's basketball, 11 national titles in women's basketball and — hopefully we didn't get this wrong — seven other national titles combined in field hockey, where they've been a powerhouse, and men's soccer.
"So we expect nothing less than great competition from this proud school when we welcome them back into the Big East fold. We have already started integrating the UConn staff and their coaches into our meetings and our planning. Putting the events of the day aside, we do expect a very smooth transition and know that many exciting renewed rivalries and some new ones are very much on the horizon."
The Big East is facing significantly different challenges than the one UConn last resided in during the 2012-13 season.
Ackerman has been in numerous virtual meetings in the last eight weeks with league presidents, athletic directors, compliance officers, coaches, doctors, trainers as well as NCAA and other conference officials to try to prepare for an uncertain future.
They've talked about all the different scenarios moving forward. They're still dealing with the fallout from the cancelation of the NCAA tournament and spring sports season. "We're just working as hard as we can to pick up the pieces from March and then try to figure out amidst all this unprecedented uncertainty what our options are going to be, particularly this fall and they relate to everything from practices to competitions to conference tournaments and to the NCAA championships," Ackerman said.
"All the conferences, including ours, are building out, because we had to, alternative scheduling models."
The Big East has a game plan for some things.
For one, there will be no fall sports season without students back on campus.
The Big East is preparing for a scenario in which not all 11 member schools will participate in a fall sports season. Members reside in 10 different states, including hard-hit areas like the metro New York region and District of Columbia.
"In our case, we expect that we're going to have a patchwork outcome," Ackerman said. "The new Big East is in 11 different jurisdictions . .... The likelihood of possibly staggered entry dates this fall and beyond is very high for us. And that just adds to the complexity of our overall decision making process.
"If our campuses aren't open, we will not have athletes coming back or sports events or activities resuming."
There is a possibility the Big East could run a fall conference season without full participation but needs at least six teams, according to NCAA guidelines. Big East presidents will reach a decision about the fate of fall sports by late June or early July.
The college basketball season also could be impacted.
"The focus of the NCAA right now has been mostly on fall sports," Ackerman said. "Just as an organization,
tion, I don't believe we're far enough along as we need to be in terms of thinking out contingencies around the basketball season. But we are proceeding right now as if it is business as usual.
"... Hopefully the winter and spring sports next year will be good to go, but given the times we're living in here and what we've already been through once, I think you have to be ready for everything and we're going to make sure we are."
Any verdict about the college basketball season could wait until around Labor Day,
Ackerman said. She added that any delay in the college football season could have a domino effect, particularly as it relates to television.
There will continue to be an endless list of issues to be dealt with from traveling restrictions to health and safety concerns to financial fallout.
The league already took a big hit from losing revenue due to the cancelation of the NCAA tournament.
Ackerman looks forward to the day when the Big East can accurately forecast and prepare for what lies ahead.
"The absence of sports, in many ways, just reaffirms how important they are to all of us," she said. "So I feel very confident that when sports come back, they're going to come back big.
"But, in the meantime, there's clearly a lot that we don't know. We don't know what will be in store in the coming months and beyond. ... These are really immensely trying times. But when the dust settles, I can assure you we're going to do nothing less than carry on the proud tradition of the Big East Conference." g.keefe@theday.com