It’s been nearly a month since Urbana University declared it was permanently closing its doors. The announcement came April 21, heaping yet another casualty on the growing coronavirus pandemic pile.
Tragic for both students and faculty, the decision also has farther reaching ramifications in the sports world. As one of only two Ohio-based members of the Mountain East Conference, Urbana’s inclusion was key to the continued success of the MEC.
Now, the conference must hope pandemic procedures are lifted in time for fall sports to resume AND find a replacement for Urbana.
A long-term fix is a conference problem. The MEC and commissioner Reid Amos are fixated on more pressing concerns, namely pandemic-related issues: Is there going to be a fall season? How to keep the athletes safe once it begins?
The immediate fixes, however, fall at the doorstep of fellow conference members.
The MEC released its 2020 conference football schedule on April 9. Twelve days later, Urbana announced its closure. That left 10 conference members with unexpected openings in their schedules.
Finding a Replacement
West Liberty was the first team on Urbana’s schedule. Its Thursday, Sept. 12, meeting was supposed to be the Hilltoppers’ home-and-conference opener.
Little time was wasted finding a replacement.
“As soon as it happened, we realized that we needed to get on the phone,” WLU Athletics Director Lynn Ullom said. “I give (head coach Roger) Waialae credit; in just a couple of days, we had interest from Ohio Dominican, and it came together rather quickly. We may be the exception to the rule, unfortunately, so we are grateful to have found someone to fill that slot.”
Now the Hilltoppers will welcome the Panthers to West Family Stadium for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Sept. 12—again, provided the season goes off as planned.
Ohio Dominican is a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and has been since 2017 and the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference before that. The Panthers competed in the GLIAC from 2010-2016 after they moved up to Division II from the NAIA.
ODU finished 7-3 in 2019, with two losses coming to Valdosta State (48-21) and Truman (21-7) in the first round of the postseason. The Panthers are 76-33 since making the jump, and their only losing season came in 2010 (2-8). They’ve reached the postseason three times, advancing to the quarterfinal round in 2014.
“With everything that has happened in the last few months, we have clauses in the contract that if the game doesn’t happen, no one is financially responsible,” Ullom said. “At this point, it’s a one-year deal. Fortunately, they had a hole in their schedule. Football scheduling is incredibly difficult, but it’s easier to find non-conference opponents in the beginning of the season.”
One Down, Nine to Go
Ironically enough, next on Urbana’s schedule was a home contest against Wheeling University.
The Cardinals have yet to fill that slot, though Sports Information Director Andrew Woodley stated head coach Zac Bruney has made inquiries.
Woodley explained the university is waiting to see the outcome of a proposal made to the NCAA by the Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association, adjusting the minimum and maximum number of games required.
Currently, subsection 17.10.7.1 of the NCAA Division II manual states that the maximum number of games (and scrimmages combined) is 11.
“The football proposal was to drop the max from 11 games to 10 for the year,” Woodley said. “I know Zach mentioned he was looking to fill that week, but because of this proposal, we might not need to add an additional game. Any announcement on a potential replacement for Urbana (on the schedule) will come after that legislation is determined.”
The proposal was part of a larger push to help collegiate departmental budgets in the wake of the pandemic. Woodley believes the NCAA will decide within the next two weeks.
Carrie Hanna, the acting athletics director for the university, had a similar statement. She also noted the university’s attention is focused on the safety of its students.
“With the closure of Urbana University across all sports, previously scheduled contests with them, as of right now, are just being treated as a bye game/week,” Hanna said. “The health and safety of our student athletes and all involved will always remain the first and foremost priority in all decision making. We will continue to stay informed to make the best possible decisions as well as develop various scenarios to be as prepared as possible.”
Teams in Limbo
Including Wheeling, nine teams still may need to find a replacement for Urbana on the schedule. The Cardinals’ current online schedule lists the week as TBA.
The next two games were at Charleston and home against West Virginia State. Both of those respective schools have removed that week entirely from their digital schedules.
The remaining six, from October 10 against Fairmont State to the Buckeye-state showdown with Notre Dame on November 14 all are still listed and unchanged on their respective teams’ websites.
Plans may be in the works, but there’s no official announcement.
Glenville State now faces an extra difficulty as its October 17 home date vs. Urbana is also its homecoming game.
Alumni purchased tickets and reserved hotel rooms well in advance and will need to adjust on the fly just like the university.
“With our football schedule, we are in a wait-and-see pattern in terms of finding a replacement game,” said Glenville State Athletics Director Jesse Skiles. “If indeed the D2CCA approves the 10-game max, we are going to hold our schedule as it is and the Urbana week will be an open date for us.
“Unfortunately, that was our Homecoming date, so we are in the process of moving that event to another spot on the current schedule.”
What If the Season is Canceled?
The staged reopenings in states across the nation are starting to catch steam as more and more things Americans once took for granted are slowly being returned.
It’s far from a return to normal, but it’s inching closer. That being said, there’s no guarantee football goes off as planned this fall. Anyone thinking football is too big a societal fixture to be canceled need only recall the NCAA tournament. Different times indeed.
On the Division I level, the financial fallout from canceling the season is likely the biggest fear for member institutions. That’s a lot of lost revenue in TV contracts, ticket sales, and game-day concessions, not to mention the bump in merchandising.
For many programs, the athletics department budget is greatly propped up by the money football brings in. That’s not nearly as big an issue for Division II schools.
“The beauty of Division II is in boom times, when things are going phenomenally well, I don’t know if Division II can capitalize,” Ullom said. “But on the other side, when things like (the pandemic) happen, I don’t think we are hit as hard as we’re not dependent upon big money and TV contracts. We won’t have that gaping hole in the budget. It’s a blessing and a curse for Division II.”
If Not Money, Then What?
Ullom summed it up by noting it’s nothing that athletics departments in Division II don’t deal with already, to a degree. It’s next-man up time, figuratively, and he said, “You have to be prepared to change your game plan and find a way to adapt and make it work.”
The real worry at this level is not the sports budget, but the potential enrollment fallout. If schools are forced to resort to online learning for the semester or, even worse, the entirety of the next school year, what happens to enrollment? Specifically, do those athletes enrolled in school still choose to attend that university without the prospect of playing sports?
“I think that is our biggest fear — what does that do to enrollment,” Ullom admitted. “Do all the athletes come back and (attend digitally)? In a perfect world, yes. But we’re all realists, and you worry about what the landscape will look like at every level if that happens.”
“My philosophy is to stay positive and take advantage of the time now when most campuses are closed and take time to plan and visualize and look to the future.”
