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Quarterback Davis Cheek readies to receive a snap during an Elon walkthrough session at the end of last month.
Times-News
[Photo courtesy of Peter Fortunato / Elon athletics], Times-News
ELON — With the ground shaking across the Football Championship Subdivision and the prospect of a playoff structure having caved in, Elon’s hope to play football this fall is on increasingly tenuous footing.
The Phoenix has been left with few choices, other than shifting gears and joining the pursuit of a competitive season in the spring, after the week ended with the Big Sky Conference and Pioneer League becoming the latest from the classification that makes up the lower level of Division I college football to decide against conducting fall seasons amid the coronavirus pandemic.
That movement Friday dipped the FCS below the threshold recently mandated by the NCAA for sponsoring a fall championship, a stipulation that a postseason format would require 50 percent of playoff-eligible teams to participate in a regular season.
Then, James Madison dropped out. The Dukes had been Elon’s only conference ally in forging ahead with trying to assemble an independent fall schedule after their league, the Colonial Athletic Association, suspended football due to COVID-19 concerns.
James Madison, a national power that has competed in three of the last four FCS title games, cited “nationwide developments over the course of the week and the impending postponement of the NCAA FCS championship” in pulling out of the fall.
Elon athletics director Dave Blank, who has said the Phoenix wouldn’t be opposed to playing a competitive spring season, acknowledged Friday night the considerable dominoes that have fallen across the FCS landscape.
Nine of the 13 conferences in the FCS have set their sights on the spring after either calling off football for the fall altogether or choosing not to conduct league schedules. The Missouri Valley Football Conference, home to eight-time FCS champion North Dakota State, said Friday night it won’t have a league schedule this fall, but will permit its schools to play up to three non-conference games.
“As so many schools are making decisions, it’s going to impact our ability to move forward,” Blank told the Times-News, “and we are analyzing all of that collectively. But as we’ve said, we’re going to continue to monitor and make sure we’re making decisions based on what we think is best for our student-athletes’ safety and health and well-being.”
Blank has said since last month that the FCS postseason will be the Phoenix’s guide. “You chase it as far as you can and then you move on,” Blank said in July, adding that Elon would follow if the NCAA opted to move the championship format from the fall to the spring. Elon has reached the FCS playoffs in two of the last three years.
Elon’s CAA conference mates Albany, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Richmond, Stony Brook, Towson, Villanova and William & Mary have been out for the fall since the league suspended football last month.
The CAA has said those teams could explore the possibility of conducting a competitive football season in the spring, and now James Madison, the conference heavyweight, has entered the mix in the hope for a spring season.
Meanwhile, the Elon football team has continued training, though yet to put on helmets and pads and convert into preseason practice mode. The Phoenix could be in its opening days of training camp practices, but instead has maintained a routine of workouts, meetings and on-field walkthroughs. Those were the return-to-play activities allowed by the NCAA during previous weeks, before the start of training camp practices were to commence this month.
Elon coach Tony Trisciani said Friday night that the Phoenix will resume workouts, meetings and walkthroughs Monday after taking the weekend off.
“For our kids, there’s been some anxiety over what’s going to happen,” Trisciani said, noting the uncertainty looming over football in the fall. “But they’ve been very good about focusing on the day-to-day and training and just trying to get better every day, and that’s what our focus has been on — player development, scheme installation and just being smart and having healthy habits and keeping COVID out of our facility.
“They’re working hard right now. They’ve worked hard all summer. They’ve got a good attitude. They’re focused on the day-to-day. Whether we play football in the fall or the spring, our guys will be excited and prepared.”
In theory, four scheduled games still were standing for Elon earlier in the past week.
But the Phoenix lost its money-making visit to Duke on Thursday when the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 10-plus-one modified football schedule showed Charlotte as Duke’s plus-one non-conference game. James Madison’s decision Friday cost Elon another game at the least.
Campbell of the Big South Conference and The Citadel of the Southern Conference are the only components of Elon’s original 2020 schedule still pursuing playing in the fall.
