Game’s off for UAPB football
Covid-19 cases within Texas Southern’s football program have led to the cancellation of Saturday’s regular season finale at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
That gives UAPB extra time to prepare for the May 1 Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game against Alabama A&M. The conference announced Wednesday that Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson, Miss., will be the venue for that game after learning that both the Texas Southern-UAPB and A&M at Mississippi Valley State games were canceled. Valley’s program is also dealing with covid-19 protocols.
The SWAC went to an on-campus format for its championship game in 2018 after holding it in Birmingham, Ala., from 1999-2012 and in Houston from 2013-17. But the cancellations complicated a tiebreaker procedure that would have determined whether this spring’s title game would be played at UAPB’s Simmons Bank Field or A&M’s Louis Crews Stadium in Huntsville, Ala.
“The canceled games would have ultimately assisted the Conference Office in determining a host institution for the championship game using our existing hosting tiebreaker policy,” SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland said in a news release. “Without having the ability to thoroughly evalu
ate both teams using that policy, we felt the only fair and equitable decision that could be made was to move the game to a neutral site location.”
The championship game is scheduled for 2 p.m. and will air live on ESPN2 and the WatchESPN app. UAPB announced KPBA-FM 99.3 in Pine Bluff, KARN-AM 920 in Little Rock and Sirius XM (channel not specified) will carry the broadcast starting with a one-hour pregame show at 1 p.m.
Earlier this week, SWAC media relations official Andrew Roberts said the Football Championship Subdivision Coaches Poll would be used to determine whether UAPB (4-0 overall and in SWAC) or A&M (4-0, 3-0 SWAC) hosts the game. According to the poll released Tuesday, A&M is 22nd and UAPB is 25th.
A&M Coach Connell Maynor was under the impression during Monday’s SWAC coaches’ Zoom conference that all his team had to do was beat Valley by eight or more points to earn hosting rights, since Valley would have been the only common opponent
between his team and UAPB.
UAPB Coach Doc Gamble said in the news release that his program understands and respects “the difficult decision the SWAC had to make” and looks forward to the Golden Lions’ first title game since December 2012, when Monte Coleman’s team defeated Jackson State 24-21 in overtime.
Before Wednesday’s announcement, Gamble seemed to take the cancellation of the last home game for this spring in stride.
“That’s something we can’t control,” he said. “It’s no reason to be mad about it or upset
about it. For us, it’s making sure we spent today erasing everything we had prepared for in Texas Southern, what we thought was going to be this upcoming game. This is the normal, nowadays. Change is certain. I always say that. We’re always ready for the ready. We’re just now looking forward to the next one, and we’re happy we have a next one coming up.”
Gamble said he took a look at A&M on Tuesday, noting he had finished preparations on Texas Southern. He saw a replay of A&M’s 38-14 win over Alabama State on television.
“It was just on my mind, and when I came home from practice, I took a peek,” Gamble said. “I told the staff this morning, ‘I will admit, I took a peek.’ I don’t know if anyone else will, but our focus was only supposed to be on Texas Southern. We had spent Sunday evening, Monday morning and Tuesday morning in preparation for Texas Southern, so I don’t think it’s wrong for me to take a peek at our upcoming opponent. I’ve done that before, just to really gauge and get a feel for them, but our mind was on Texas Southern.”
Gamble and the Golden Lions had prepared for the Tigers (1-2 overall and in SWAC) when they were to be the first opponent during a season postponed from the fall because of covid-19. Extremely cold temperatures in Pine Bluff overstressed a water system and led to leaks and breaks across the city, postponing the game originally set for Feb. 27.
Now, the Tigers are the only team to back out of playing the Golden Lions because of covid-19. Grambling State reported cases within its program days after UAPB defeated that team in Grambling, La., on March 20.
Clarence McKinney said during Monday’s Zoom meeting that his Texas Southern team had been dealing with covid-19 cases for two weeks, leaving about half of the team quarantined.
“Our guys are just dealing with it,” McKinney said. “It’s the first we’ve had to deal with covid since we first heard about covid. It’s been a trying time for our team and our program. The guys who are able to practice are ready to get after it and get ready for our next opponent. It’s been a while since we’ve had a game. Our guys are just itching to just get back out there and play against someone else.”
The Tigers lost 20-19 to archrival Prairie View A&M on March 6 and 51-23 to Southern University on March 20, but they have not played since. An April 3 game was put on ice due to covid-19 cases in Grambling’s program, and an April 10 game against Alcorn State was ruled a forfeit victory in Texas Southern’s favor, as Alcorn pulled out of spring football because of the pandemic.
UAPB and Alabama A&M will meet in the SWAC final for the second time. A&M beat the late Mo Forte’s Lions 22-13 in 2006.