The Big Ten Conference (B1G) recently cancelled fall sports, including our beloved football season. The impact of that decision has been far reaching. What the announcement of the cancellation lacked was any sort of transparent communication about the reasoning behind the decision. Predictably, this led to confusion, outrage and backlash, especially as other collegiate athletic conferences, including the SEC, ACC and Big 12 plan (at this point) to move forward and play fall sports.
The response to the B1G’s decision has grown increasingly angry. A few examples:
Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields started a petition to allow B1G athletes to play; it has garnered nearly 290,000 signatures to date.
Open letters appeared in abundance, from coaches, parents and players.
A couple coaches actually proposed playing anyway.
Players ripped the B1G commissioner in public interviews.
Media debated the merits of canceling vs. playing, as well as the public outcry.
Fans … well, responded like fans.
And we can’t forget a good ol’ conspiracy theory!
After nearly a week of silence, the B1G commissioner penned his own open letter explaining the rationale for the cancellation, citing the evidence and opinions that drove the decision and debunking the conspiracy theory. The crux of the statement:
“While several factors contributed to the decision to postpone the 2020-21 fall sports season, at the core of our decision was the knowledge that there was too much medical uncertainty and too many unknown health risks regarding SARS-CoV-2 infection and its impact on our student-athletes.
Listed below are the primary factors that led to the Big Ten COP/C decision:
Transmission rates continue to rise at an alarming rate with little indication from medical experts that our campuses, communities or country could gain control of the spread of the virus prior to the start of competition.
As our teams were ramping up for more intense practices, many of our medical staffs did not think the interventions we had planned would be adequate to decrease the potential spread even with very regular testing.
As the general student body comes back to campus, spread to student-athletes could reintroduce infection into our athletics community.
There is simply too much we do not know about the virus, recovery from infection, and longer-term effects. While the data on cardiomyopathy is preliminary and incomplete, the uncertain risk was unacceptable at this time.
Concerns surrounding contact tracing still exist, including the inability to social distance in contact sports pursuant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. While risk mitigation processes (e.g., physical distancing, face coverings, proper hygiene, etc.) can be implemented across campus for the student body population, it became clear those processes could not be fully implemented in contact sports.
With the start of full-contact practices and competitions, it became increasingly clear that contact tracing and quarantining would risk frequent and significant disruptions to the practice and competition calendar.
Accurate and widely available rapid testing may help mitigate those concerns, but access to accurate tests is currently limited.
Significant concerns also exist regarding the testing supply chain, generally, for many of our institutions.”
Much of the furor surrounding the cancellation of the fall sports season likely could have been avoided if this clear and consistent communication had simply accompanied the initial announcement.
We previously discussed the value of clear messaging and communication, but here’s a quick recap:
Be timely with your communication
Educate rather than promote to build credibility
Be helpful, transparent and altruistic
Stay the course and reinforce key messages
The B1G provided a fine reminder of the importance of clear communication. The commissioner’s open letter may help quell some of the outrage, but by not communicating initially, the B1G provided ample opportunity for that outrage to fester and grow. Once that genie is out of the bottle, it’s awfully difficult to get it back.
Contact PR Return today to see how we can help with your communications strategy.