Questions Abound For Buffs In Wake Of Pac-12 Decision - University of Colorado Athletics - CUBuffs.com

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BOULDER — What's next?

That was the question of the day for the Colorado Athletic Department — and every other Pac-12 school — on Wednesday, one day after the conference announced that all fall sports would be postponed at least until Jan. 1, with men's and women's basketball also being shoehorned into the one-size-fits-all dictum.

"It was a difficult and painful decision," CU Athletic Director Rick George said in a Wednesday conference call with the media. "I'm incredibly disappointed for our student-athletes who won't be able to participate this fall."

The conference's decision, reached unanimously by school presidents and chancellors, became even more difficult to accept in Boulder because of the Buffaloes' recent success in containing the spread of the coronavirus among student-athletes. CU had instituted strict protocols and guidelines since student-athletes returned in mid-June to begin voluntary workouts, and they had thrown a shutout — no positive tests for any athlete — over the last few weeks.

Still, George said the final decision was made in the best interest of student-athletes throughout the conference, and he said he agreed with the postponement.

"I've said from day one, we've had medical advice along the way to help guide our decisions and our first priority is to make sure we look at the health and safety of our student athletes," George said. "While it was a difficult decision, I feel like it's the right decision. We've been working for four or five months to be able to compete. To make that decision (Tuesday) was really difficult, but it was one we needed to make."

The Pac-12 joined the Big Ten as two of the Power Five conferences to postpone all fall sports. The other three — the SEC, Big 12 and ACC — are all still moving forward with plans to play in the fall.

Four CU coaches whose programs are directly affected by the Pac-12 ruling also participated in Wednesday's conference call. Each expressed disappointment in the decision, but most also said they understood how it was reached.

"I've always been a proponent to play this fall," said football coach Karl Dorrell. "I just wanted to play. Our team was 100 percent all in. I would have played if it was a five-game season this year … The thing that obviously changed was the medical information we all saw in the last day or so. As much as I'm a competitive man and want to have a competitive program and be successful, it still comes down to the well being of our student athletes …  I still wanted to play but I understood the reason we didn't play."

But one coach, men's basketball's Tad Boyle, couldn't contain his frustration. While he said he had been considering the possibility of a conference-only schedule that might not begin until January, he expressed "shock and disbelief" at the timing of the decision.

Boyle said it would have been far more prudent to wait another month or two to reach a decision on a sport that usually doesn't begin playing games until early November. From his viewpoint, lumping basketball in together with sports that begin competing in August and September made no sense.

"I don't understand why we made the decision when we made the decision," he said.  "If that decision has to be made sometime in September or October, I get it. I don't understand why it was made in August."

But Boyle — as well as George and every other coach on the call — was already looking forward to what will come next. For Dorrell, soccer coach Danny Sanchez and volleyball coach Jesse Mahoney, it could mean implementing a "spring schedule" in the fall.

That could include a practice stretch and "spring game" for the football team.

"Spring ball in the fall? It makes sense," George said. "What we said is we're not going to have competitions until Jan. 1. That doesn't mean you couldn't do something like that if the conditions change and we're able to participate."

Of course, with the decision barely 24 hours old when Wednesday's conference call was held, there were far more questions than answers. Such things as eligibility issues and what spring football, volleyball and soccer schedules would actually look like are still to be answered.

Meanwhile, Dorrell noted, some seniors with eyes on the NFL — players such as linebacker Nate Landman and K.D. Nixon — will face the decision of either playing in the spring or using that time to prepare for the NFL Draft.

"Some answers we don't have at this point but we're working very quickly with our conference and the NCAA to make sure we have those answers," George said. "We'll be working hard to put ourselves in a position that when it's time to go, we're going to be ready to go and we'll be competing at a high level. We've got great young men and women in our department and our staff has really done a great job."

Also front and center on George's priority list will be some financial decisions that won't be easy. George said the delay of the season, plus other financial peripheral impacts will have a big effect on the department.

However, he said one thing he won't do is eliminate any programs.

"We are not cutting sports," he emphatically said. "I told our student-athletes that yesterday. No. 2, we're not cutting anything that impacts the experience for our student athletes. All the support areas I mentioned — mental health, nutrition, academics, leadership, all those areas — we wiil not touch those areas. We have an obligation to provide a great experience for our student athletes and we're not going to look at any of those areas."

Still, that doesn't mean he won't have to make some tough decisions in the near future."

"We do have some challenges," he said. "Will there be furloughs and layoffs? Probably. My leadership team and I have been working on that for a while now and we've really ramped it up over the last few days. We'll make some decisions hopefully in the next 7 to 10 days on what that will look like. Those are gut-wrenching because it does impact people. But we won't eliminate any sports."

But for CU's coaches and players, it will mean staying motivated for the fall semester in preparation for a spring season. Each program will obviously utilize whatever time is allowed by the conference and NCAA to continue to meet with student-athletes and continue in strength and conditioning and other drills.

"We still have to be cautious, we still have to be smart with our training," Dorrell said. "We have to do things that have gotten us to this point. Right now we're planning for a great fall. We're putting together a great fall plan to keep these guys healthy, to keep them developing, to keep them motivated and doing the things that need to be done."

For the volleyball team, it will simply mean a chance to at least get back on the court. Even with no games in the immediate future, a chance to practice again will be welcome.

"We're still trying to work through what our fall will look like," Mahoney said. "We've been away from the court for five and a half months and looking forward to getting back on it. We've been rolling with the punches and we'll continue rolling with them."

Sanchez's soccer team is all on campus.

"They're all back and they're ready to go," he said. "Whenever we get that opportunity to play we're going to be excited to go, whether we're going to play August 20 or January 20."

Women's basketball coach J.R. Payne — who was surprised basketball was included in the Pac-12 decision — said it now means a new fall plan with the hopes that they can begin playing games in early January.

"We felt very strongly that the protocols our medical team and administrators have put in place have given us the greatest opportunity to play," she said. "We just remain hopeful."

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu

 

 

 

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