A sequence of occasions led to the upcoming SWAC Championship Recreation rapidly evolving from an on-campus scenario to a impartial web site location.
It began Wednesday when Mississippi Valley State introduced that may be unable to play its scheduled sport towards SWAC East champion Alabama A&M due to COVID-19 points inside its program.
That meant Alabama A&M, which was tied within the total standings with SWAC West champion Arkansas-Pine Bluff, didn’t have a simple path to probably safe home-field benefit within the convention title sport.
Tiebreaker situations would then be in play, however executing a type of wouldn’t seemingly be equitable to both Alabama A&M or Arkansas-Pine Bluff contemplating the obvious inequity in scheduling.
So, the league introduced Wednesday that the championship sport could be performed in Jackson, Mississippi — a impartial web site — due to “cancellations that immediately impacted Alabama A&M and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.”
SWAC Commissioner Dr. Charles McClelland spoke with HBCU Gameday and defined how the convention arrived on the determination to pivot to a impartial web site.
McClelland defined that each faculties within the working for home-field urged the sport be performed at a web site aside from its own residence stadiums.
Additionally learn: SWAC relocates soccer championship sport to Jackson
“From a equity standpoint, there was equal argument on either side,” he informed the web site. “Each establishments realized that it was of their greatest pursuits to come back collectively, and it was the convention workplace that realized it was in the most effective curiosity for everyone to come back collectively and do what was most truthful on this COVID setting.”
The commissioner went onto additional element that the convention workplace thought-about Jackson, Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama — dwelling of SWAC headquarters — to host the sport.
Jackson, he mentioned, was ultimately chosen as a result of it could have been simpler for the league to regulate the mechanisms by which to efficiently orchestrate the sport and the town was open to internet hosting it.
To make up for the monetary losses the colleges would maintain by touring, the league will cowl the bills for each faculties and every member establishment will break up income gathered from the sport, McClelland mentioned.
As well as, bands of every faculty might be allowed to journey to the sport, which McClelland known as “promising.” Marching bands have been unable to seem at highway video games through the common season due to COVID-19 security considerations.
“Each determination that we make is a collaborative determination,” he mentioned. “Membership at all times has a chance to chime in. And our job is to facilitate that dialog and do what’s greatest for the membership as a complete.”
Supply hyperlink
Powered by WPeMatico
