By JOHN McCALLUM
Managing Editor
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – University officials announced last Thursday, Oct. 15, that they had decided to opt out of the proposed Big Sky Conference 2021 spring football season, becoming the first conference team to do so out of the 13 football playing schools.
Eastern Washington University Athletics Director Lynn Hickey said the news came as somewhat of a shock to the rest of the conference, with schools not finding about Sacramento State’s intentions until that day. The Hornets move does not change Eastern’s plans to take part in a football season moved from fall to spring due to the continuing spread of Covid-19.
In their announcement, Sacramento State officials said the move was made because of concerns over a quick turnaround time between a possible end of the spring season in late May to beginning of fall practices in August.
“Our concern regarding the effects of a short turnaround and recovery time from a spring season to a fall season, in our opinion, were too big of a health risk,” Hornets head coach Troy Taylor said in a news release. “Obviously, we are disappointed in not having a football season this year. But we are already striving and preparing for the 2021 fall season.”
The Big Sky announced in early August it was moving football season to spring 2021 over Covid-19 concerns, proposing an eight-game schedule ending in late April, followed by a 16-team playoff culminating in a national championship game in late May. Sacramento State officials pointed out that fall practices would then begin in August, followed by an 11-game regular season and traditional 24-game national playoff — with any team advancing to play in both national title games playing roughly 26 games in under one year.
The Hornets were co-Big Sky champions last year along with Weber State, and are expected to return a good nucleus of players from that squad.
Hickey said that since the announcement in August, Big Sky officials are now looking at a six-game regular season rather than eight — three home and three away — with time built into the schedule for a couple of bye dates. California is in a different situation right now with regards to the coronavirus pandemic than other Big Sky Conference states Washington, Oregon, Montana, Arizona, Utah and Colorado, and Hickey added that not all of the Hornets players had bought into the idea of spring competition.
Eastern Washington remains committed to playing in spring, Hickey said, but a lot of that — including beginning any sort of practices — will depend on the virus. One of the reasons conference athletic directors changed the proposed schedule — which could be released in early November — from eight to six games, she said, was in consideration of the turnaround time with the fall season.
While the time could be short, if a team were to reach the May playoffs, the eight to nine weeks in between would likely have more of an effect on recovery time from possible injuries and may change summer camp schedules. Hickey said they have discussed the timeframe with medical groups, doctors and program trainers and all have signed off on it.
“That’s still a pretty good gap,” she added of the two-month turnaround.
Key right now for Eastern is complying with testing requirements imposed by the NCAA. Those requirements are a minimum of three times per week per athlete, and at $100 a kit, the total cost to the university Hickey said runs in the neighborhood of $400,000 – $500,000 to test all athletes.
Pac-12 schools, including the University of Washington and Washington State University, are planning to a return to football in November, and have higher testing requirements. Part of the conference’s decision to return to play earlier than 2021 was based on the availability of rapid testing, and Hickey said Big Sky officials were working with the company providing that testing to the Pac-12 to implement it as well.
Hickey also said the university continues to work with Spokane Regional Health District and state Health Department officials to work out procedures for athletes to safely return to practice.
“I think we’ve made some safe decisions,” she said regarding spring football. “The big thing is, will we have fans in the stands? That’s up to the governor and the virus.”
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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