Pac-12 postpones fall sports to due to concerns for player safety
It was a devasting day in the Pac-12 on Tuesday as all athletic competitions, including football, were postponed until at least Jan. 1 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The decision to postpone competitions comes less than two weeks after the Pac-12 announced plans for the football season to begin Sept. 26 and the other fall sports to most likely begin the same weekend.
“This decision was made after consultation with athletics directors, our coaches, football working groups and with the Pac-12 Covid-19 medical advisory committee, who expressed concern with moving forward with contact practice,” said Larry Scott, commissioner of the Pac-12 on a Zoom call with media members. “After reviewing all the data and considering the alternatives and having already delayed the start of our season and compressed our season, the CEO group was unanimous that this result, this decision, was necessary. The health, safety, and well-being of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports has been our top priority, and that was the top priority today.”
Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson, who was also on the Zoom call with Scott, University of Oregon President Michael Schill and Pac-12 medical consultant Doug Auckerman, echoed Scott, saying the health and safety of student-athletes trumps the desire to play sports in the fall.
“We tried to make adjustments, to change schedules, make adjustments with workouts,” Anderson stated. “We want to play in the worst way but not at the risk of the health and safety so with the inconsistencies in the virus and then with this additional information coming out that says you just don’t have enough to make decisions particularly going into contact sports with these young men and women to put them at risk. Now we want to hold out hope that we have postponed, but we have not canceled.”
Anderson went on to say he and the other conference officials are “proud” of how this decision was handled. He said he is “confident” the Pac-12 players, coaches, and their families feel as though their safety has been kept at the forefront during this entire process.
One of the most interesting parts of the media session was when Anderson was asked if postponing the fall sports was a liability issue and why the student-athletes signing a liability waiver was not an option. Anderson said the schools have a duty to protect student-athletes and waivers would not do so.
“It’s not an option because our responsibilities are not about liabilities,” Anderson said. “Our responsibility’s about accountability to the student-athletes and their families. Short and long-term. So we can’t waive our duties and obligation to protect them, driven by the science and the medicine. We’re not driven by lawyers who say well; we’ll relieve you of liability. That’s not what floats the boat in this conference, so we have responsibilities and accountability. And so the science and the medicine says, we cannot allow you to go forward right now. So we won’t.”
The Pac-12’s decision to postpone athletic competitions follows a decision by the Big-10 conference earlier Tuesday to postpone fall sports competitions as well. However, Schill said the Pac-12 would have made the decision regardless of the Big-10’s decision.
“I think that we have been discussing this for a while and we knew that there was a parallel track with the Big-10 also discussing this,” Schill said. “And we feel good about our decision. We would have made this decision independent of the Big-10. We’re very happy. We respect the institutions in the Big-10. Many of them have the same values that we have, and we’re pleased that they’re joining us.”
The decisions of the Pac-12 and Big-10 come after the discovery that myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, is linked to Covid-19. On Monday, ESPN reported that myocarditis had been found in at least five Big-10 athletes and some athletes in other conferences.
As for playing football in the spring semester, there is still, a concern for player safety even if the virus is under control by January. Obviously, with the increased awareness over the past two decades about the dangers of football on the brain, playing a full season of football in the spring and then again in the fall would not be ideal.
Scott said a solution for the player safety concerns of playing in the spring semester could potentially be a shortened spring season.
“That is one of the top questions and considerations,” Scott stated. “How many football games could be played in one calendar year? We obviously have a spring portion of the football season, but nothing like playing a full season. So whether it’s a full season, compressed season, there’s a lot of different scenarios that folks are looking at …. One of the reasons why considering the spring was not at the top of the list of things you wanted to default to right away. There are going to be some health and safety considerations.”
With the lack of revenue coming into athletic departments in the fall semester, there is a concern as to whether or not schools will have to cut certain non-revenue sports. When the issue was raised during the call, Anderson said as of now the threat of cutting programs is not imminent but will be a decision made by each individual Pac-12 school.
“From my perspective, every institution is going to have to determine for itself what the way forward is,” Anderson said. “We’re certainly intending and adamant about continuing the experiences for all of our student-athletes and so finances, no question will have an impact, But it’s a matter of how you make the appropriate adjustments on both the expense side and the revenue creation side, and we’re going to be working hard toward trying to figure that out, but our view is that we’re going to get better. The pandemic is a temporary thing. Quality athletics in the Pac-12 is a forever thing as far as we’re concerned.”
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