The Great American Conference reinforced its intentions of having a fall sports season by following the route that a few of its NCAA Division II counterparts have taken in recent weeks.
The GAC announced Friday that its council of presidents agreed to delay the start of all sports practices until Aug. 31 and postpone any athletic competitions until Sept. 28.
The news was an expected outcome according to Ouachita Baptist football Coach Todd Knight, who has led the Tigers to three consecutive GAC titles and five overall since the conference was established in 2011. He admitted that he's excited about the prospect of getting his team back out on the field.
"I had a feeling that we'd go in this direction," he said. "I'm on the American Football Coaches Association committee and I'm also on the Coaches Connection that represents Division II, so I've been on calls all summer. With everything that's been going on, this gets me fired up.
"I get emotional just talking about it. Football needs to get back. The fall sports with volleyball, cross country and soccer ... they all need to come back."
The status of any fall sport has been fluid at best for months because of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Numbers have surged in recent weeks, which caused several conferences on all levels to rule on how to approach their upcoming seasons.
But the GAC's update, which affects six schools in Oklahoma and six in Arkansas, offered a clear explanation about what the league's plans are for the near future.
"This will allow our member schools to focus on opening their campuses for in-person learning, give student-athletes more time to re-acclimate for full athletic participation and provide more clarity on the trajectory of covid-19 issues across Oklahoma and Arkansas," GAC Commissioner Will Prewitt said Friday. "The primary focus of the GAC Council of Presidents and the GAC Council of Athletic Administrators is to find a safe way to conduct a meaningful and competitive fall for our student-athletes, coaches and campus communities.
"We will track on guidance from the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], regional health experts, the NCAA outside consultants and campus medical professionals as we evaluate conditions into the fall."
The GAC's decision comes on the heels of what the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association decided to do earlier in the week. On Monday, the MIAA, whose teams have won four of the past nine Division II football national championships, also decided to begin fall practices Aug. 31 and hold off on any actual games until the week of Sept. 28.
Earlier this month, the Mountain East Conference determined that its teams would start football practices Aug. 17 and all other fall sports on Aug. 24, while competitive play would begin as early as Sept. 10.
Other Division II organizations, including the the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference have suspended competition entirely throughout the fall.
The GAC, however, stopped short of guaranteeing that athletic events would take place this year.
Prewitt noted there is a possibility that a split season could happen, meaning that any regular-season games that were missed prior to Sept. 28 or even potential playoff contests could begin in the fall and finish in the spring. That could also mean that games scheduled after the begin date could be pushed back if the season starts but has to be paused because of covid-19 issues.
The GAC commissioner did mention that there has been talk between the board of directions about the NCAA championships in general, but he hadn't heard anything concrete from them.
"The NCAA Division II Championship Committee, they met [Friday morning]," Prewitt said. "I know they have greatly expedited their schedules. They originally weren't going to meet until August. Frankly, there's 23 conferences and at this moment, there's 13 of us that hope to go forward.
"We really need to know on what direction we can go with our schedules. ... there are lots of unique strange things. We would be looking at a seven-game schedule tops [if football is limited to the fall] and conceivably in a split schedule, we could play six games in the fall and four in the spring. But we're really at the mercy of the NCAA bodies to give a determination on that."
Harding football Coach Paul Simmons acknowledged that he'd love for his team to play a complete schedule, if possible. But he's not about to complain if his Bisons aren't allowed to either.
"At this point, and with the way things are going, we'll be happy to get to play seven with the chance at the playoffs," he said. "The bottom line is that a lot of young men in other places have had their season already taken away. So for us, we have to be thankful for what we have and make the best of it.
"We recognize that losing some ballgames in the big picture is not a life or death matter. It's important to these young men, it's important to us. But we certainly understand that it's a lot of perspective involved."