SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Southern Conference Commissioner Jim Schaus sat down with Pete Yanity recently to discuss current affairs around the league for the latest installment of the Commissioner’s Corner.
 
With the topic of the coronavirus pandemic at the forefront, the pair opened the discussion by talking about the league’s approach to competing during the pandemic and how that perspective has evolved since the fall.
 
“We certainly do know more about the virus in terms of things that we’re doing with testing, working with our schools, but there’s still many challenges and unknowns,” Schaus said.
 
Still, he’s looking forward to what he hopes will be exciting seasons in the winter sports of men’s and women’s basketball, rifle and wrestling and hopes to see the league build on its success in men’s basketball, in which the SoCon was the 13^th-ranked conference last season.
 
“We have some exciting sports coming up,” he said. “We just hope that we’ll be able to complete those seasons the way we’d like to.”
 
Planning for the winter sports amid the pandemic has not been easy, he said.
 
“It’s been a challenge in a lot of areas,” Schaus said. “One would be scheduling, trying to figure out this whole year how we’re going to schedule for different sports, what’s the best way and safest way to get games in. So that’s certainly one of those areas. We’re certainly anticipating cancellations. It’s inevitable. I’m not sure how often it’s going to be. I think a sport like men’s and women’s basketball is maybe more susceptible to quarantine issues because you have a smaller squad, you’re inside, more games; so how are we going to handle that? Will they be pure cancellations, will we be able to reschedule some of those games?”
 
Testing officials is another area that presents challenges for the league, Schaus said.
 
“You may not think about that. The schools are all testing, but if you don’t have two healthy officials to start a basketball game, you can’t start the game. So, we’re working with our consortiums that we have with the SEC and ACC to have a really good model about sending these tests to the officials on the road as they travel. An official might have three or four games in a week, so you’ve got to be able to test him, get results and then have time well before those games.”
 
Schaus also mentioned that the league has examined how to award regular-season championships if teams have played differing numbers of SoCon games, and that the league must be flexible and prepared to pivot in some areas as necessary to complete its seasons.
 
The pandemic will also continue to have an effect on SoCon postseason championships. In addition to the testing and safety measures that will be place at each event, the league announced in May that it will be limiting the championship fields in men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s tennis, softball and baseball to just the top four teams in the regular-season standings. The soccer and volleyball championships, as well as the football regular season, will take place in the spring instead of their traditional fall dates.
 
The Ingles SoCon Basketball Championships presented by General Shale are scheduled for March 4-8 at Harrah’s Cherokee Center Asheville in Asheville, North Carolina.
 
“The Asheville men’s and women’s basketball championship is of course one of our crown jewels for the season. We’ve had a lot of discussions with the folks in Asheville, how do we put that event on safely. Working with hotels, where the teams are going to be staying. The building, locker rooms, how will we stage this differently than we did last year to ensure safety and health.”
 
Lastly, Schaus and Yanity discussed the SoCon’s 100th anniversary, which the league recently announced it would celebrate in 2021.
 
“We’re very proud of that, excited. … You only get to do this one time, and we hope it’s going to be a really good one,” Schaus said. “Of course, our hope and prayer is that we’re going to be able to get through this healthy. That’s going to be very, very important. As we just finished Thanksgiving and we look ahead to the holidays, we certainly are going to wish everybody a very healthy and happy holidays, as well.”