Ross Bjork Teleconference: March 25

Athletics Director Ross Bjork held a teleconference for members of the media on Wednesday to update them on the latest from Texas A&M Athletics.

Click here to listen to the audio.

Opening Statement by Ross Bjork (RB): Thanks everyone, for being on today. I made the comment to one of our staff members that this is a conference call in a virtual world and we're just living in it right now. So here's another example of gathering in a virtual state. We're operational. We need to keep the athletic department moving forward in many ways as possible during this unprecedented time. And our focus when I put out a message to our staff is, you know where we have to remember why we're here. We're here to serve our student-athletes are fans, our donors, are other staff members, our coaches, and we have to keep that in mind. We can't physically be in the same space, but we can still support at the highest level. And that's really our mentality as we face this, I think I talked to some of you last week that I thought last week we were sort of in the triage organizational stage and that this week we kind of see what new normal is. But I think there's just continued to be sort of the triage, if you will, as things progressively get to tighter containment not only in our community, but around the country and around the world. So I think we're still dealing with some of those matters but also trying to move as many things forward in a normal way as possible.

QUESTION: What is the football team doing to do "virtual spring drills?" How is (coach) Jimbo (Fisher) handling everything from not having spring drills but doing what they can to help the guys be active, working out and so forth?

RB: That's a great question and obviously something that's top of mind as we look into the late spring and summer months and approach football season. Right now, the only thing that we can do is we can really advise them on working out and making sure that they're safe. We could send them workouts. We can't monitor those workouts, meaning we can't get reports back from the student-athletes. So we're just being proactive and making sure that our strength coaches are keeping just a close eye on the health and safety of our student-athletes. Right now, there's a restriction on athletic activity. The SEC we decided on this is as a conference. There's a restriction on athletic activity until April 15th and so the question is, what happens on April 16th? You know, we don't have that answer yet. I think we really have to get organized around what that looks like next week so we could start the plan for a potential return, to any sort of athletic activity, meaning in a virtual sense. And so right now it's mainly just around. We can communicate with them socially. We can communicate with them regarding making sure that that they are working out on their own and sending them workouts, that it's really sort of voluntary. And then they're still decisions that have to be made on what happens in a virtual setting, after April 16. So in some ways you're at a standstill from a football perspective until we really know more about how this virus impacts us longer term.

Q: The March 30 deadline is coming up for the eligibility release issue. How has that kind of unfolded since the last time we talked to you on what that should look like? And has your stance or thoughts on it changed at all since the last time we talked to you?

RB: Supporting our student-athletes to the best of our ability has not changed. I want to be a liberal as possible. And then, really, it's going be up to the program, the coaches and the athletes to figure out what's best for them. So we don't have all those answers yet. We have a daily SEC conference call among athletic directors and the conference staff. And so that has been agenda item every single day in terms of let's provide input, let's provide perspective, is there any new information that's come to the table since yesterday? So we're learning more. The NCAA Council will vote on this on Monday, and so we provided input on exactly what all this means and my perspective hasn't changed. The likelihood of winter sports, I think, has waned a little bit. So I think the focus is more on spring sports. But until all the input is in and all the feedback is gathered and until the council votes on Monday, we don't know for sure how everything will roll out.

Q: What kind of discussions, or have there been yet, on contingencies? If this continues and we're talking about this into July and August about affecting the football season?

RB: I think it's really too early to tell. I think the key that we're focused on is sort of back up from the first game being Labor Day weekend. Some people were slated to open on Thursday night. We're obviously slated open on Saturday, September 5th. I think you have to back up from there and say, OK, here's what the current NCAA legislation allows you to have for training camp dates. Here's when you can start -- what has to happen before that in order to prepare the student-athletes just from a physical standpoint to make sure that their health and safety is forefront. Then you have to take from where we are today and move that forward and say, Okay, when can we come back together? And those things sort of have to match up. We just don't know when we're able to come back together to then start the planning of how do you back up from September 5th? I hope I'm explaining that the way I'm thinking about it to all of you. So I think it's too early to tell. But, we've all obviously all thought about the worst case scenarios. And we know how impactful and really just devastating it would be not only emotionally, but just financially for many athletic programs across the country that have football. I think my comment last week was everything rises and falls on football, so that still applies. So it would have major impact across, our communities, our athletic program, the university, the confidence, the emotional piece of it. But it's really too early to tell because we don't know when we're able to really come back together and had any sort of face to face interaction. But that's how we're kind of approaching it -- you just kind of go backwards from the game day, and then you go forward in terms of how that we meet in the middle in terms of those dates and how does it match up to preparation? And so all those things are being talked about as we as we plan what the future looks like.

Q: I have a two-part question – Does Texas A&M, in any shape or form, have to "tighten their belt"? No. 2, do you expect the NCAA to tweak the rules for summer practices and how much coaches can get involved if the spring football workouts are shelved?

RB: Great questions. I'll take the second one first. Yes, to me as part of this whole planning of how do you prepare our fall sports for the fall of 2020. Assuming that we're able to get back together physically, I believe there needs to be some acclimation period, if you will, in May or June or July or whatever. It don't doesn't need to be a full on spring practice. To me, it's more of an NFL mini camp style, right, with very little contact, if any. Maybe it's helmets and shorts. I believe there needs to be some sort of prep period during that time, assuming that we can all physically come back together. So those are the things that are being discussed when we're talking about matching up the preparation period.

In the financial period… Yes, there's definitely going be a 'tightening of the belt.' Those details are a moving target. At this point in time, we don't know the full impact of the NCAA basketball tournament cancellation on the NCAA distribution which goes to the SEC, which then they distribute that equally and so we don't know what are final SEC distribution will be for fiscal year 2020. We anticipate it being less, but we just don't have that number yet. We also don't know the total impact yet. We are offering refunds on baseball, in softball, in track, so we don't have a final number. Those things are still being processed and people are still deciding. We don't know yet a financial impact of less concession revenue, particularly on the baseball side, because we have great crowds in baseball and produce a lot of income. We don't have that final number yet, and then we don't know what what we're saving in terms of travel costs and operational costs. All those things are being formulated right now. But we anticipate there being a 'tightening of the belt,' as you described it, we just don't know exactly what that will look like quite yet.

Q: In regard to the athletics budget, is the price of oil going to impact you at all?

RB: Being here about 10 months now, I've learned quickly that our donors rely on the market, as it relates to oil and all the subsidiary operations that flow into that economy. The impact will be felt within our donor base, which then ultimately could impact us. The approach that we have taken in the 12th Man Foundation is that we still need to continue to develop relationships. We need to communicate as best we can, honestly in the virtual setting, and so our staff in the 12 Man Foundation is still working; they're just working in a different environment. But we have to continue to cultivate our donors. We have to continue to build relationships to make sure that we stay in touch with them. It's kind of one of the things: we don't have the full answer yet. We know there's an economic impact of oil in the state of Texas. How that ultimately plays into our financial picture is still yet to be determined.

Q: With College Station having issued the "shelter in place", who qualifies as essential for the athletics department and who is at their office right now, or is able to go up to the office?

RB: We are operating our sports medicine facility, so our west campus training room and we have the Bright Complex training rooms being operated. So that staff would be considered essential and they're on a rotational basis. We take the temperature of our athletes when they walk in the door, and obviously there's washing of the hands and we're taking lots of safeguards with social distancing, those sort of things. So that would be one layer. Our nutrition staff and our nutrition center is open. The Slocum Center is open for grab-and-go meals, three meals a day. We've averaged about 125 to 140 meals per day since we started that last Monday. That staff will be included in that essential group. And then we have to maintain our facilities. We have to make sure that we don't have any equipment break or anything like that. We have to mow the grass, and so our maintenance and facility crew would be essential staff. Our IT folks, to make sure our IT operations are up and running. They can do a lot of that remotely, but if they need to go up to the office and check servers or make sure things are operational, that group would be included. We are able to have our computer lab open for our student-athletes from an academic standpoint. And so, again, social distancing and all the best practices. We need to get student-athletes in there for our computer labs. That was deemed essential by the University. But otherwise the instruction to our coaches and our athletic staff is that we need to adhere to the shelter in place. The sooner we can contain this, the better off we all are. So that's how we're operating.

Q: Do you know the number of athletes that are there still living on campus or around the campus?

RB: The one thing that we tried to do is just stay on top of sort of the census, if you will, of all of our student-athletes. As of last week, we had 27 student-athletes that live in the dormitories - the resident halls here on campus. Eight were in town as of last week. And so we believe that number has gone down a little bit, so that eight has gone down. We're actually we're going have another census call today to get those final numbers. But a very small amount. We allow our student-athletes, if they want to live off campus, they can do that. So we had a very small amount living in the resident halls and then a very small amount that were in town. As of last week, as well, we had about 265 student-athletes that we're still in College Station. I believe that number has gone down a little bit and we'll have some more data on that later today, if not tomorrow.

Q: The football team is doing the Madden tournament between coaches and players. How did something like that come up? And what hurdles did you have to make it happen compliance-wise?

RB: Yeah, the thing about the dead period is obviously we can't have visitors on campus and we can't go off campus. Just give the credit to our football recruiting staff for coming up with that idea, and compliance signed off on it through the SEC. Just a great way to engage and be creative and do something unique. I think the creative skills in all of us are coming out in lots of different ways. And that was just a neat way to stay connected, do something unique. Obviously, video games are popular. My 13 year old son…I've got to get him out outside more often because he's always playing video games. So it was a cool way, and I give our football recruiting staff a ton of credit for coming up with that idea.

Q: You mentioned your 13-year old son. Advance that five years and let's say your son is a student-athlete at Texas A&M and, heaven forbid, something like (the coronavirus pandemic) happens. I know the coaches go into these parents' houses and say "we're going to take care of your kids" and then all the sudden the NCAA says you can't look after them anymore. I understand the social distancing part, but it almost seems like they're not able to look after these kids like a parent would look after them, and I think that's important. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, it seems to me like that's kind of going a little overboard, but I understand it. You want to make sure the 18 year old kid is being looked after the way a parent wants him looked after.

RB: My reaction to that is if you and I had talked on Thursday, March 12 - gosh, that seems like a long time ago, but it's less than two weeks ago - the thought process, and this is where my head was as well, is that these young people are better off in our environment, right? They have a secure place to live, they have food, they have their teammates, we've got the training room, we clean our weight rooms constantly, we clean our facilities -- that they're better off here. It's just shifted. It's shifted to we know people are carrying (the coronavirus). Even though they may not have symptoms, they may not have been tested yet, we know they're a carrier. If they give that to someone who's more at-risk, then maybe somebody else, then we have that responsibility. So I think we had not only a moral, but really a legal responsibility, to protect everyone, not only at the university level, but each department. And so the mindset shifted. Less than two weeks ago I was right there with you that having these young people stay here because we can contain everything and our facilities are clean, but this thing has just evolved. I think what we have learned is that the more we isolate ourselves the more we can contain this quicker. We can flatten that curve. But we also know that less than a week ago we had zero cases in Brazo Csounty. Now we have 21, as of this afternoon. So it's evolving. It's moving, but our obligation is to make everyone safe, but especially, our young people and who they come in contact with.

My understanding is the power conferences are holding discussions to at least have a common sort of situation and singing from the same sheet of music, if you will. Have you heard that too? Do you have any particular things that you would like to see included in that or at least considered?

RB: Yes. So Commissioner (Greg) Sankey (updates us) in our daily calls, and they also have an Autonomy Five Commissioner call that he participates in on a regular basis. (Inaudible) participates in regular conversations with the other Autonomy Five / Power Five commissioners and we would all agree that uniformity would be ideal for the return of our fall sports and how we acclimate heading into the season. So I would agree with that. I think the challenge is going be, if you're a team in New York where the hot spots right now, your environment may be different than if you're in Texas. And so I think those things have to be taken into consideration, and obviously we see what's happening in Louisiana. So I think uniformity will be the goal in the approach. And then I think we'll have to see what kind of environment everyone has before final decisions are made. I know that's the conversation. I agree with that. The SEC agrees with that, and now it's fluid and we'll see what happens from there. The element is how do we prepare them in the safest way possible, knowing that it's a highly competitive (situation) - we're just talking football here, but I'm also thinking about volleyball and soccer and cross country. How do we prepare them so that we don't have injuries and they're prepared to compete at the highest level? Those are the kind of things – (do we use) mini camps, acclimation periods, if that's eight hours a week and you can actually have helmets and shorts and it follows some of our current protocols. Those are all the kind of things that I think we have to have with whatever that plan would look like.

Q: You're a first-year guy with these spring sports. I guess at the end of every season you talk to coaches about where they're at and what they do. So in this situation, do you just give a "pass" and move on? Are you going talk to your spring coaches? Are you going to wait? How does that play out?

RB: If I was here longer, then maybe I'd have more time to evaluate sort of a full body, if you will. But, let's just take our spring sports, I'm only seeing a third of the season, if you will. It's hard to do a full assessment on the performance piece. I've been able to see them operate academically and how they run their programs. Off the field, I'm been able to observe all those things. But you also have to observe the performance. And so yeah, in our mind, I don't know if 'pass' is the right word, but it definitely causes us to say 'we're all in this thing together. Let's support our coaches at the highest level. What do they need to have success?' And so perhaps those conversations are elongated now that we have more time to spend together. But we don't anticipate changes or any anything radical. We need to get through this together, and I believe we have great leaders and we want to support them and let's get back on the fields and courts and tracks in 2020-21.

Schedule

Footer

Upcoming Events

Ross Bjork Teleconference: March 25

Related News

Related Videos

Footer