Questions surround UAlbany-Elon game
ALBANY, N.Y. » The snow on Albany’s Casey Stadium had been shoveled off to the side and the warm sunlight covered the field. The temperature could have fooled someone into thinking it was actually football season, not the first day of spring practice on a Tuesday in the capital of New York.
At this point in the year, just over five months before the start of the college football season, every college football team has released its schedule. Good or bad, every team knows what its preparing for when the spring season starts.
That, however, is not the case for the University at Albany. The Great Danes are one game short on their schedule. And that one league game, supposedly at Elon on Sept. 30, has become a major point of concern for the CAA six months before its supposed kickoff.
“I don’t really know the whole deal,” UAlbany head coach Greg Gattuso said. “I don’t really worry about stuff I can’t control. This (football) is what I can control, and this is what I worry about.”
UAlbany has already felt the impact of North Carolina’s HB2 law, which prevents protections for transgender people and requires them to use public restrooms of the gender on their birth certificate, not restrooms of the gender they identify with. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo subsequently banned non-essential state-funded to North Carolina.
A men’s basketball season-opener at Duke was cancelled and replaced with a game at Penn State. Two field hockey games last season at Duke and North Carolina never happened. This situation, though, is a bit more complicated. And it’s forced a great deal of stress for UAlbany and the CAA. Because this is a league game, Albany can’t simply cancel the game. But with Albany being a SUNY school, it also has to abide by the Governor’s code.
The issue rests almost solely on Albany’s shoulders to find a solution. And while Elon has supposedly been part of talks to find a solution, their public attitude hasn’t been so generous. Unlike Albany, the Elon-Albany game is a part of the schedule.
“That’s our schedule,” Elon football spokesman Chris Rash said. “There’s nothing else to say.”
Follow-up questions regarding Elon’s involvement in a solution were ignored by Rash. Elon athletic director Dave Blank and UAlbany AD Mark Benson both declined comment.
Multiple requests made to SUNY communications press secretary Holly Liapis went unaccommodated.
Even CAA commissioner Joe D’Antoio said he had to be vague in divulging any details about a resolution.
As a result, it’s still unclear if not playing the game would result in an Albany forfeit. It’s unclear if Elon would be willing to move the game to a semineutral location in another state. It’s unclear if there’s any possible way to play the game without moving it outside of the state, though D’Antionio hinted there was.
“I know what the resolution is,” D’Antonio said, “but I’m not in a position to talk about that publicly right now.”
D’Antonio said there “a variety of options” that Albany is looking at to resolve the issue. But in reality, this problem has been a known concern for months now. Governor Cuomo banned non-essential travel to North Carolina nearly a year ago to the date.
Elon has spoken out against HB2, and there’s hope that the law might be repealed in time for this football game to be a nonissue. And while D’Antonio indicated the CAA, Albany and Elon are active in actually creating a solution, they’re lacking transparency on what it might be. As far as the public knows, there’s no solution in sight, despite ample time to find one.
“This situation, because it’s so sensitive, is just one where it’s really difficult to give any concrete information on,” D’Antonio said. “Other than to literally tell you that the administration at Albany is working to find a resolution. If I can be as honest as I can with you, that is exactly where the thing stands right now. Literally.”