FLUSHING, N.Y. - On Tuesday, the City University of the New York released its latest "Ask Zak" feature - a question-and-answer session with the league's Executive Director,
Zak Ivkovic.
Below is an opening message from Commissioner Ivkovic:
"Thank you to all the students and staff who have provided their questions below. which I will answer in the best way I can at this moment, given that things are rapidly changing.
The past 10 weeks have flipped our world upside down in ways that we could not have imagined, even as we were going through our full slate of Championships in February and celebrating the successes of our student-athletes in a number of different sports. Then the entire planet basically shut down and all of our athletics world with it.
Having seen its' effects firsthand in such a short time, it would be rather foolish to predict what is to come for Fall sports season or for the entire 2020-21 academic year. We are all fully aware of the pandemic effects for New York City, with too many members of our community losing loved ones and when that happens, all else takes a back seat. At the same time, we also realize that we all need a vibrant campus life to bring us some semblance of normalcy and that is what we hope to provide to our students come this Fall, if the rest of the campus community does the same. The athletics portion in Division III is joined at the hip to the academic component, hence the term student-athlete, that has its' real philosophical meaning primarily in D3.
We will be back when the student body is back at CUNY.
In the meantime, together with our campus Athletic Directors, we will plan to make 2020-21 as meaningful and safe as humanly possible for the entire athletics enterprise and if given the green light to proceed, we will do our best to do so."
Q: What is the possibility of sports (Fall and Spring) continuing even if classes are moved online?
A: Sports cannot happen in a vacuum. There are so many entities on any campus doing awesome work behind the scenes, whereby their support is essential to giving our student-athletes a platform to compete on. Folks from admissions, financial aid, buildings and grounds, student affairs, health services, and of course athletic departments are needed to ensure we have safe, sanitized and clean athletic spaces, locker rooms, vans, fitness centers and pools without which we cannot and will not compete. When, and only when, those areas are deemed safe for all students will we deem them safe for our student-athletes to engage in athletic competition.
Q: Should we expect anything out of the ordinary?
A: Yes, everything is out of the ordinary, unfortunately. We should expect more of the same, especially with enhanced safety measures as it relates to testing, safe social distancing and new rules for athletics engagement which we will be far from used to. It will be the cost of returning to "normal".
Q: What can we expect from the Fall season? How will non-conference games be affected?
A: If we are back on campus, I expect that our national governing bodies (NCAA and NJCAA) will allow member institutions to utilize new set of rules for 2020-21 that allow for maximum flexibility as the Division III membership has indicated in a recent membership survey. That would allow conferences as ours to scale back the number of games and travel to non-conference opponents to minimize the risks and also allow our schools to work together in the given space. It would also incorporate the realities of NYC for a potentially safe and common sense approach to bringing back sports as part of the overall effort by the University and the State leadership.
Q: How will fans be affected? Game day staff?
A: As we have initially done this Spring, we do not expect to have any fans in the stands for the foreseeable future and will instead turn our efforts to bringing our events to the fans at home through continued efforts to enhance our technology use and web-streaming efforts. That will not cover all sports but we have continued to expand those efforts and this pandemic will continue to force us to focus even more in that direction.
Our support staff is the obvious key to the whole effort and of course their safety and well being in able to care for hundreds of student-athletes. Our Athletic Trainers are obviously on the front lines and we need to ensure that we support their work in a much more robust way, from personal protection equipment to SA testing to safety measures that all personnel have to follow. It is a significantly new approach for all of us behind the scenes supporting our students.
Q: What will XC running look like in the fall? Staggered? All at once? With masks or not?
A: Together with our Athletic Directors we have established working groups for each fall sport to map out our potential return to sports, including cross country. Our experts in each sport will tell us (while incorporating guidance from major sport and governmental organizations) how we can move forward safely and effectively. We expect that each sport group will have guidance and proposed best practices for us by July 1st.
Q: Will women's tennis season still happen in the Fall? Full or reduced? 50% rule for postseason awards if season is reduced? 75% rule for post season awards if season is reduced?
A: Tennis is the only Fall sport with which we have flexibility since the NCAA Tournament happens in the spring, therefore allowing us the flexibility to move our entire season to next Spring. We should await the feedback from the tennis working group to determine the next steps, but we have already seen Division II reduce their contest limits and many conferences (including CUNY) looking at playing conference games only in all sports, so all options are on the table for our experts to weigh in.
With postseason awards, we can adjust to anything less than 100% of the season as we have done this past spring with men's volleyball. That will be voted on by the Athletic Directors on a case by case basis.
Q: How will the Fall volleyball season look? Has CUNY considered having a season without fans?
A: Again, as with other Fall sports a lot of factors will come into play as stated above for all Fall sports. With volleyball there are added safety implications to consider with regular contact at the net and some celebratory / sportsmanship common practices which we will have to learn to forego rather quickly and hopefully temporarily.
Q: What have you learned or taken away so far from watching sports in other countries like soccer in Germany and baseball in Korea, that you think we can implement here with our student-athletes?
A: Often times we consider ourselves in US to be the global leader in all things, but perhaps this is a great reminder that we can and should learn from others who have and are doing things very effectively in combating this pandemic and adjusting to new realities. Such is also the case with examples you point out where we see that effective pre-game testing, social distancing (where feasible on the bench, with working personnel, media) and new on field realities make the sports possible. I have learned a lot already from just two weeks of the German Bundesliga and will continue to follow others worldwide in navigating this process for the well being of our CUNY students. Soccer is the one Fall sport that carries the greatest risk for us in CUNY with consistent contact for 90+ minutes, so the monitoring of pro sports leagues will be an important summer distraction for all of us as we hope to see more soccer return, along with tennis, running events and volleyball. We are less engaged with baseball for the time being as that will be a concern down the road collegiately, but again something to monitor with MLB return and also how the NBA manages the return to basketball.
Q: If classes are online for the next semester, how does that affect spring sports?
A: The spring sports have already paid a heavy price, so we hope that they will not be impacted again next spring. However, the likelihood that the non-traditional Fall seasons will be impacted is clearly a concern with baseball, softball and tennis, especially of course if classes are online. However we are already seeing plenty of national discussions around added flexibility for impacted sports, so I am optimistic that those Fall practice opportunities will not be lost altogether.
Q: If the fall season is cancelled will it be played/made-up in the spring?
A: That is a distinct possibility at this time, in theory, but I think highly unlikely in reality. We would be asking the same Athletics staff to double the number of sports they oversee in same timeframe, while also using the same facilities and resources (transportation, Athletic Training and Media Relations staff to name just a few). For institutions like ours, which have limited outdoor space as is, it would be a massive hurdle. I think it far more likely that Fall student-athletes would keep another season of eligibility instead, much like what occurred this past spring for those SAs.
Q: How has the global pandemic affected the CUNYAC staff and the work you do for the campuses?
A: Besides planning for the many possible scenarios for the upcoming year, our efforts have focused on keeping the student-athletes as engaged as possible given the online nature of the academic world this spring. We just concluded the #CUNYACTrivia contests that have engaged hundreds of our students in daily social media competitions that have rewarded daily and weekly winners, plus our grand prize winner this week. We will add CUNY webinars to our plate over the summer to educate our students and staff on number of relevant topics and we have also continued to forge ahead our efforts with Inclusive and Adaptive sports with the rolling out of our Wheelchair Basketball team. At the same time we have done daily website and social media recognitions of our senior scholar-athletes, All-Americans and soon the release of our Commissioner Cup winners and our Scholar-Athletes of the Year.
We will also unveil our new CUNYAC promotional video that will tie in our students and how they have and continue to learn and train from afar. I love their resilience and their accomplishments and that will show how New Yorkers battle thru adversity.
Q: With many student-athletes and their families experiencing job loss, is there a chance of allowing part-time students to participate so they could work and help out at home?
A: The full-time enrollment for student-athletes is an NCAA and NJCAA rule, therefore not something we can arbitrarily change, no matter how good the intentions as you stated above.
Q: What would happen if a school couldn't field a team in a sport due to unforeseen circumstances next year?
A: The national governing bodies are taking into consideration the reality that many schools will not be able to field the same teams in 2020-21 as they did previously and are taking steps to ensure that members remain in good standing even if they fall below the prescribed guidelines for number of teams needed. So flexibility will be an important word for all of us as we head into the less known space.
With the hope that everyone returns for the Fall semester safe and sound, please continue to engage with your coaches and Athletics staff for any and all support you may need. Our CUNY Athletics staff eagerly awaits the next opportunity to serve all of you.
