David Thomas is not your normal academic. President of one of the nation’s most prized black universities, Thomas once played center and linebacker on the soccer field and, as a foreign exchange student, competed abroad in basketball. He realizes the cultural importance of sports and understands his place in the world.
That is why his decision to cancel the 2020 Morehouse College football season is so jarring.
As hundreds of NCAA universities feverishly debate contingency plans to play football around a pandemic, Thomas last week ended all discussion on the subject at his Division II school in Atlanta. More than two months before the season began, he went offline. Although unrelated, Morehouse’s announcement on Friday came amid unrest in the world of collegiate sports, as well as the nation. COVID-19 cases are springing up across the country, with at least five states suspending reopening plans, including football giants Texas and Florida. Dozens of FBS schools that reopened for voluntary training are now battling outbreaks in double figures. Four teams have suspended training, and three more have had or have at least 20 players in quarantine or isolation.
After a month of advancing towards a kick in time, the pullback has begun. He left managers asking a daunting question. Can we really play a fall soccer season? “We can’t,” Thomas replies in an interview this weekend with Illustrated Sports, “Or at least I’m not smart enough to know how we can do it. Every president and athletic director should look [the positive tests]. We are only in the training part, and the results of these tests return. How can we move forward with one season, given what we know about the virus, and think that we won’t accelerate transmission?
The immediate fate of college football has never felt so fragile. In the ranks of sport at small universities, many believe that Morehouse has paved the way for other programs to do the same. Small historically black universities and colleges are seriously toying with the idea of scrapping the 2020 season.
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While these institutions exist in a different economic stratosphere than FBS schools, they have similarities to Morehouse. They lack the financial incentive, the rich television offerings, to risk practicing a contact sport in the midst of a pandemic; administrators fear infections will start on the soccer field and spread to the classroom, a full-blown outbreak on a campus of predominantly black students (the black population has proven to be more vulnerable); and some schools are unable to commit to additional testing and sanitation protocols due to lack of resources.
Decision time is coming. For those in Division I, a six-week preseason program is slated to begin in less than a month on July 24, while those in Division II plan to start in early August. “I don’t think the Morehouse announcement is going to be the last such announcement,” says Charles McClelland, commissioner of SWAC, one of the four HBCU conferences in the NCAA: two on DI and two on D-II. “There will be some schools that will not participate in soccer.”
Morehouse is not the only NCAA university to cancel its soccer season. It is one of three, so far. The other two programs are at the Division III level, the lowest rung in the NCAA that is prohibited from offering sports scholarships. Bowdoin College, located in Maine, announced its decision in early June, while the New York-based Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute made its announcement Tuesday.
At the DI and D-II level, at least five games have already been canceled, including four with HBCU programs. Several schools anticipate a late start to the season, including those of the FCS Patriot League, whose athletes will not return to campus until their students do. Some D-II HBCU teams are considering playing a minimum of seven games this season and potentially starting two weeks after the Labor Day weekend. That list includes Clark Atlanta, a sister school to Morehouse, both members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
George T. French, the president of Clark Atlanta, hopes the measure will have an impact on other SIAC schools. In the coming week, the conference is expected to make a league-wide decision about the 2020 season, says French, president of the SIAC Council of Presidents. Clark Atlanta has yet to announce plans for her season, but French fully supports Thomas’s decision, calling it “brave” and rooted in science. “It doesn’t make sense for me to have a soccer season this year, for any school, with virus rates going up,” he says.
Another D-II HBCU conference, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, is still gathering information before making a decision on its season, says Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams. If the majority of the conference cannot play soccer, he believes the CIAA board of directors will want to suspend or postpone the season. She is concerned about the increase in virus cases in North Carolina, where seven of the 12 conference members live. He is also concerned about the cozy surroundings of the CIAA campus. The largest conference institution has an enrollment of approximately 6,000. “We are all going to be in the same boat of having to isolate students. Well where can you she asks. “Many of our campuses are small.”
At DI SWAC, McClelland has his own hot spots to worry about. Many of its schools are located in southern states whose numbers are increasing. A tentative plan to return to volunteer training on July 6 has already been delayed until July 20. The SWAC has an October 17 deadline to start its season before the league seriously considers a spring season, McClelland says.
The NCAA is recommending that schools create a “bubble” around their soccer team, distancing staff and players from community and campus contacts. That is more difficult for programs without sports canteens and separate bedrooms. “When it comes to playing, resources will be a factor,” says McClelland. “The more resources you have, the better bubble you can create.”
Morehouse was unable to create a bubble at all, one of the main reasons for Thomas’ decision: six weeks in process, he says. She made the decision for fear of not being able to keep her general students safe. Without a canteen and an athlete-only residential building, he had no way of separating Morehouse’s 2,000 students from his student athletes. During the process of making the move, a fairly easy question was asked. Why am I in this business? The answer is to educate, not produce athletic opportunities, he says. “I hope every president asks the same question.”
However, Thomas recognizes that each school must make its own decision based on its situation. Soccer in Morehouse is not an income generating operation, as it is in many programs at the FBS level. In fact, Morehouse soccer loses approximately $ 2 million each year, says Thomas. Closing the pandemic has already cost the school at least $ 5 million, and authorities expect enrollment to decrease by at least 25% this fall. Only freshmen will take classes on campus with everyone else learning virtually. All students and staff will be screened and must wear a mask while on campus.
The frequency with which a football team would need testing drove the price high enough that Thomas feared he couldn’t afford it. The tests were priced at $ 100 each. Morehouse dresses 67 players for a home game, putting the cost at over $ 30,000 to test each player before the home games. For many FBS athletic departments, that’s a big change. Not for Morehouse, who has very few endorsements and doesn’t have a million dollar television deal.
“I can see my DI counterparts saying, ‘Yes, you can make that decision because it’s not going to matter to 10 million people who want to tune in and see Alabama-Clemson or Michigan-Michigan State and later.'” She says. “I don’t want to ride any tall horse. I am grateful for the luxury. I don’t have the same complications as the president of UGA, Alabama or Ohio State when making this decision. “
For Thomas, another factor was attendance, Morehouse’s only real footballing effort generating revenue. In fact, for many programs, attendance is their only sports adventure to earn money. Limited attendance or absence of public at all may indicate significant red numbers for those athletic departments that cannot rely on rich television deals and large donations of money. Many HBCU and small college program officials ask themselves a question: Worth it? “All of our schools depend on attendance,” says CIAA’s McWilliams. “We need bodies on campus and in dormitories and stadiums.”
For some officials, even a limited attendance model makes it worth playing because of the physical designs of their stadiums. Jackson State is one of the lucky ones. The Tigers play in a 60,000-seat stadium, typically only about one-third full. JSU Athletic Director Ashley Robinson can space her fans to comply with social distancing regulations. “But if you have a 10,000-seat stadium,” says Robinson, “that is going to affect you a lot.”
As for testing, many HBCU programs are receiving grants, and some have even found insurers to cover the cost, McClelland says. Almost all schools are dramatically reducing travel and staff to save on expenses. At JSU, Robinson froze at least nine athletic staff positions, eliminated all 21 graduate assistant positions and cut the number of competitions for her Olympic sports.
Many other university sports departments are making similar cuts. These are not exclusive to black universities. In fact, Kenn Rashad, editor and publisher of HBCUSports.com, says there is a false narrative that the pandemic has financially impacted black universities that cannot function. It just isn’t true. No HBCU has returned to voluntary training for security, not financial, reasons. “Given the situation with the pandemic and we are seeing an increase in positive results, we still have institutions calling these athletes and in some cases asking them to sign waivers,” says Rashad. “You don’t see HBCU doing this. It is a testament to them that they really have the safety of student athletes in mind in the first place. ”
That’s why Thomas made the unbearable decision to end Morehouse’s football season before it started. He admits that the move was not universally praised by the SIAC Council of Presidents. “There is no consensus that my decision is the right one,” he says. Still, he stands behind. The school will honor its soccer scholarships (divide 36 scholarships among the team) and will continue to pay its head coach. However, other staff positions are in limbo.
And what about the future of Morehouse football beyond this fall? As a former footballer, Thomas scoffs at the question. Morehouse football has only been on a gap year. “I have no plan to use this moment to make a profound departure from what our sports portfolio has been,” he says. “’Now is the time to finish football. It is very expensive!’ No I’m not saying that. “
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