What We Are Hearing

ATHENS - What seemed so certain even ten days ago is very uncertain now. 

UGA, like a slew of schools and universities, has taken a two-week break. The SEC, which had been preparing for the NCAA basketball Tournament, cancelled all sports championships for winter and spring sports. 

We’ve never had this much unknown surrounding the state of sports. College sports, which are fragmented into three divisions in the NCAA and a slew of powerful and non-powerful conferences, are moving forward without the same collective understanding that leagues like there NFL, NBA and MLB have. 

Member institutions in the SEC, and the SEC itself, have used language that shows their frustration at the NCAA’s lack of clarity at a time when the league was putting on its annual basketball tournament. 

Behind the scenes, officials at more than one SEC school have wondered why the NCAA cancelled all spring championships. The SEC, apparently, even kicked around the idea of playing baseball and softball games later this year. But by Friday night momentum for that seemed to have dissipated. 

When asked on Friday, one UGA official wouldn’t comment on the status of Kirby Smart’s travel during UGA’s spring break last week “because it might violate HIPPA laws”. 

“That goes for any student-athletes, too,” they added. 

It is unclear if UGA will have graduation in May at Sanford Stadium. It is unclear if there will be any large events any time soon at the university. Students and professors who have been doing work this semester oversees were told weeks ago that they would not be allowed on campus for two weeks after arriving back in the United States. 

Now, with a race to beat airport closures in Italy, France and across Europe, UGA students and faculty are trying to get back to the country… the two-week ban form campus from a few weeks ago seems irrelevant compared to the elevated threat of coronavirus here in the Ides of March. 

UGA was to start spring football practices on Tuesday with the NFL pro day on Wednesday. Now that virtually everything has been suspended until at least April 15 by the NCAA the question is what will be next for UGA and the sports world. 

Before the mass cancellations of this past week, UGA insider told me: “It is going to be interesting to see what happens with the NCAA Tournament.”

Now that might as well be “It is going to be interesting to see what happens with the rest of the year.”

There is no certainty that college football will be played this fall. That is a stunning, perhaps even extraordinary sentence. It seems impossible to imagine that college football (or any sport) would not take place later this year. 

But in October 2019, nearly no one would have believed that the NCAA Tournament would be cancelled this spring. 

We are in a different place now. The certainty of the way we dealt with college athletics in early March 2020 are gone. They have been replaced by the new reality of things now. 

One thing is certain - insurance rates for the closing of live events will skyrocket after this. Rainy Day funds, of which UGA has always been very good at keeping, looks pretty diligent right now.

A few questions/concerns:

Broadcasting rights have increasingly become critical to the growing budget at UGA. What would the ramifications in terms of money be for UGA if no football games were played this fall? Broadcasting rights for football alone are marked in UGA’s budget as nearly $20 million. What is the mechanism, or are there any procedures in place right now between the SEC, Disney and CBS regarding games not being played? Would there be any broadcast payouts?

Tickets make up over $30 million for UGA’s budget. What happens if there are no games to be played this fall? Does UGA have to or need to refund those funds back to fans? What would a $30 million hit mean for UGA’s athletic department?

Will donors, who are required to make contributions before the end of February, get their donations back for the 2020 season if football games are not played? Donations were budgeted to be more than $28 million this year.

All told, football revenues make up more than 60% of the UGA athletic budget for FY 2019-2020. While a 2020 UGA football season will almost certainly take place - it is not certain to take place now. 

Georgia, which has for years has been in the business of entertaining very large crowds in person and on television, is now facing a very new challenge. College football will likely not be cancelled in the future, but insurance rates for live events will rise now. 

If that’s all UGA has to deal with moving forward then everything will be OK.