Indiana University Athletics
Scott Dolson Zoom Press Conference Video & Transcript
8/6/2020 1:03:00 PM | General
Below is a partial transcript of Indiana University Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Scott Dolson's Zoom press conference on Aug. 6, 2020.
Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Scott Dolson
Opening Statement…
DOLSON: Thanks to all of you for joining us today. I hope all of you are healthy, and your families are safe, and again appreciate you being here. But I'll just make, a couple just brief comments and as Jeff said definitely open it up for questions. I want to start, I just want to thank Fred, Fred Glass. This is the first time I've kind of met with you post-July 1. I just want to thank him. He was awesome in the transition, and I couldn't have had a better situation in taking this over in working so closely with Fred. And he'll continue to be a tremendous advisor and close friend obviously. Basically since, I was thinking about this the other day, since I took over, or since actually I was named on March 17, I've participated in close to 100 meetings with my fellow ADs in the Big Ten, along with Commissioner Warren and several of the Big Ten staff. To me that was just interesting as I started thinking back about that. So right after I was named, Fred and I were on the meetings together, and then obviously July 1 since that point it's just been me. In the typical normal time, the athletic directors meet about four times a year. And so, I started thinking in four months, or four and a half months, I've basically had 25 years worth of meetings with my Big Ten colleagues. Just wanted to mention that because, you know I hate that we have to meet, hate that we're in this situation, but it's been extremely beneficial to me. I've been so impressed with the Big Ten, with Commissioner Warren, with my colleagues and just the respect that we have for each other, that they have, and the collaboration, and just the values of the Big Ten. So that's been a real, sort of silver lining, which again I hate that we have to meet. I just actually got off a call. It's every morning at eight o'clock, just hung up, and it's just been a really, really big deal to be in that group and to listen and gives me confidence moving forward just being a part of that group. I said this before, I said this maybe shortly after I took over, Mike Bobinski at Purdue, not to single people out, but he's been terrific. We talk regularly and it just means a lot to have that ability to confide, and seek advice, and to go back and forth, so he's been terrific. An example earlier this week, Josh Whitman from Illinois texted me and helped me out of a situation. So again, not to belabor that but I just think, I think that's the point that not a lot of fans would see because there's so much intense competition, which we love in the Big Ten, but the respect and the working together is really, really great. Also wanted to mention our medical advisory group. Dr. Larry Rink, Dr. Tom Hrisomalos, Dr. Andy Hipskind is our CMO. You know, I think Fred and I said from the very beginning, we can't eliminate the risk but we can mitigate it as best as possible by getting the best medical experts around us, and the entire medical team has just been fantastic, but the medical advisory group and has really, really been, they're tirelessly working with us to help us through this situation. I also want to mention our trainers and really the rest of our medical staff. Things have just sort of been on this roller coaster and the medical staff has just been tremendous in that, working tirelessly to help us through this crisis, so I just want to really single them out in how great they've been. Finally, I guess before we open it for questions, I also just wanted to specifically thank our coaches, our staff, most importantly our student-athletes, specifically for their patience and understanding. If you ask me what the biggest challenge has been so far, it's just the lack of clarity. It's tough because everybody wants answers. We have so many meetings just like this, Zoom calls and for me as a leader you want to provide clarity, you want to provide direction, you want to answer questions and it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest challenge is just not being able to take big steps. We have to take baby steps, one at a time, but for the most part, again I just can't thank enough our staff and our coaches and student-athletes. It's really been gratifying to see how they've reacted and the openness and communication we've had trying to work through this. So, with that I'll open it up for questions.
Q. On financial assistance for IU…
DOLSON: Right now, all of our conversations that I've had, which are frequent, have been with our university CFO and really working really closely with him. We did that prior to Fred's departure July 1. Most of you read about the initial phase one actions we took and cutting 10 percent out of our budget, and what we've tried to do is really put together all kinds of different contingency plans in not knowing exactly which way we're going to pivot, but be ready for all different kinds of scenarios. And the partnership on campus and in working through everything with our CFO, he's been really, really helpful. I guess specifically to your question we haven't gotten into exactly which direction we're going to go or anything outside of the university at this point. But the collaboration with the university's been really, really strong.
Q. On if testing will be a financial burden on IU…
DOLSON: To be totally candid with you, haven't really even added it up at this point. It's a really good question and I don't want you to think that's being irresponsible, but what we've done in terms of any of our expenses related to COVID preparations, or PPE, or testing, everything, we are doing what we feel is the right thing to do. We're certainly, our internal CFO is tracking on everything, but it's such a fluid situation that I'm not exactly sure where the cost is on that at this point yet. We've got really two different avenues that we're working on in terms of testing. We're working in close connection with the university and from their perspective in some of the gateway surveillance that they've acquired through third party. And then also the Big Ten level, like Commissioner Warren, the announcement yesterday, conference wide we're accessing. Hopefully when we're able to start that we'll all be using the same testing across the conference as well, but in terms of the exact cost on that I just don't have that yet.
Q. On his biggest worry or concern…
DOLSON: For sure it's health and safety. For sure, just want to make certain that as I said when I started out, that we can't, we know we can't eliminate the risk. We know it's not an athletic virus, we know it's everywhere. But to try and make certain that we can mitigate it as best as possible and control what we can control. The challenge is that, you know, extremely confident in everything we've done internally and I commend everyone that's put together our plans and worked collaboratively with the Big Ten and on our campus, but at the same time our student-athletes are here two hours a day and so there's so many things that we can't control. We really work well with them and have a lot of dialogue in making certain that it's a commitment, it's a partnership that we work together on, but we can only do so much on our end here, and certainly a partnership is really important. So, no question it's just the health and safety and just trying to control everything we can control.
Q. On confidence that football will be played and when basketball will start…
DOLSON: I'd say right now, and I thought Commissioner Warren did a great job of answering some of those questions yesterday, you know extremely hopeful and I feel like we took a nice step yesterday, but to be honest with you, to be totally candid, I feel like we're day-to-day. And I feel like, back to what I said, one of our biggest challenges in our communication is providing clarity. The key thing for us is that we don't get out ahead of ourselves and that we make certain that we're really deliberate. We're taking everything into account every day. The medical advice, making certain that we're following what's happening in our localities, in our states, across the country, and really just trying to make certain that we've got a plan, we're committed. You saw the schedule yesterday. We're hopeful but just, for me, I'm just really thinking almost more day-to-day. As it relates to basketball, we've had, I've had lots of long talks with Archie, and by the way our coaches have just been really great in being, you'd think at times that maybe coaches are just champing at the bit saying hey we just got to get this done, we got to get out there, we've got to make certain we're practicing just like you said, when are we going to play, but our coaches have really been, hey we've got to do this right. If it takes more time, it takes more time. Like I said, I've had long talks with Archie about that, and we're talking. We started with the fall sports at the Big Ten level and we've certainly talked about basketball, but we really haven't gotten to the level where we really can make a, I can give you a good feel for where's that's going to be. We just need to again take baby steps where we are right now.
Q. On fans being in the stands for football…
DOLSON: Great question. We've been working on contingency plans for attendance really for months. In fact, our Ticket Manager, his name is Mike Osmundson, and he is a numbers cruncher. He's really terrific and I can't tell you how many different scenarios we've put together. At one point we had a discussion, should we go ahead and put something out there because again, we want to provide clarity, we want our season ticket holders, our fans to understand and know what our plan is and what we're thinking. But we really took the strategy, which I think was the right way for us to go, was to really take our time. We've got lots of different, I mean I can't tell you how many different plans we have. What we want to do is really take as much time as we can. We want to wait until the last minute and really base those decisions on where everything is locally, where we are as a university, where we are as a state and then release that plan at that point. I'm confident that we're open to, or will have contingency plans for just about any scenario out there, not only just fans in attendance, but just all of our social distancing protocols, and how would you serve concession stand food in a social distancing situation, all the different, from tailgating, to parking and there's different scenarios in each one of those. So, I'm proud of our staff and all the contingencies we've put together, worked months on them. Obviously, we're close because you can see where the schedule came out yesterday, but I just feel it's prudent to just wait because I wouldn't just want to put something out there and three days later something changes and say well now it's this. So hopefully we put it out there, at least for the first few games it'll be whatever it'll be, but we'll also say that that could change throughout the season as well.
Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Scott Dolson
Opening Statement…
DOLSON: Thanks to all of you for joining us today. I hope all of you are healthy, and your families are safe, and again appreciate you being here. But I'll just make, a couple just brief comments and as Jeff said definitely open it up for questions. I want to start, I just want to thank Fred, Fred Glass. This is the first time I've kind of met with you post-July 1. I just want to thank him. He was awesome in the transition, and I couldn't have had a better situation in taking this over in working so closely with Fred. And he'll continue to be a tremendous advisor and close friend obviously. Basically since, I was thinking about this the other day, since I took over, or since actually I was named on March 17, I've participated in close to 100 meetings with my fellow ADs in the Big Ten, along with Commissioner Warren and several of the Big Ten staff. To me that was just interesting as I started thinking back about that. So right after I was named, Fred and I were on the meetings together, and then obviously July 1 since that point it's just been me. In the typical normal time, the athletic directors meet about four times a year. And so, I started thinking in four months, or four and a half months, I've basically had 25 years worth of meetings with my Big Ten colleagues. Just wanted to mention that because, you know I hate that we have to meet, hate that we're in this situation, but it's been extremely beneficial to me. I've been so impressed with the Big Ten, with Commissioner Warren, with my colleagues and just the respect that we have for each other, that they have, and the collaboration, and just the values of the Big Ten. So that's been a real, sort of silver lining, which again I hate that we have to meet. I just actually got off a call. It's every morning at eight o'clock, just hung up, and it's just been a really, really big deal to be in that group and to listen and gives me confidence moving forward just being a part of that group. I said this before, I said this maybe shortly after I took over, Mike Bobinski at Purdue, not to single people out, but he's been terrific. We talk regularly and it just means a lot to have that ability to confide, and seek advice, and to go back and forth, so he's been terrific. An example earlier this week, Josh Whitman from Illinois texted me and helped me out of a situation. So again, not to belabor that but I just think, I think that's the point that not a lot of fans would see because there's so much intense competition, which we love in the Big Ten, but the respect and the working together is really, really great. Also wanted to mention our medical advisory group. Dr. Larry Rink, Dr. Tom Hrisomalos, Dr. Andy Hipskind is our CMO. You know, I think Fred and I said from the very beginning, we can't eliminate the risk but we can mitigate it as best as possible by getting the best medical experts around us, and the entire medical team has just been fantastic, but the medical advisory group and has really, really been, they're tirelessly working with us to help us through this situation. I also want to mention our trainers and really the rest of our medical staff. Things have just sort of been on this roller coaster and the medical staff has just been tremendous in that, working tirelessly to help us through this crisis, so I just want to really single them out in how great they've been. Finally, I guess before we open it for questions, I also just wanted to specifically thank our coaches, our staff, most importantly our student-athletes, specifically for their patience and understanding. If you ask me what the biggest challenge has been so far, it's just the lack of clarity. It's tough because everybody wants answers. We have so many meetings just like this, Zoom calls and for me as a leader you want to provide clarity, you want to provide direction, you want to answer questions and it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest challenge is just not being able to take big steps. We have to take baby steps, one at a time, but for the most part, again I just can't thank enough our staff and our coaches and student-athletes. It's really been gratifying to see how they've reacted and the openness and communication we've had trying to work through this. So, with that I'll open it up for questions.
Q. On financial assistance for IU…
DOLSON: Right now, all of our conversations that I've had, which are frequent, have been with our university CFO and really working really closely with him. We did that prior to Fred's departure July 1. Most of you read about the initial phase one actions we took and cutting 10 percent out of our budget, and what we've tried to do is really put together all kinds of different contingency plans in not knowing exactly which way we're going to pivot, but be ready for all different kinds of scenarios. And the partnership on campus and in working through everything with our CFO, he's been really, really helpful. I guess specifically to your question we haven't gotten into exactly which direction we're going to go or anything outside of the university at this point. But the collaboration with the university's been really, really strong.
Q. On if testing will be a financial burden on IU…
DOLSON: To be totally candid with you, haven't really even added it up at this point. It's a really good question and I don't want you to think that's being irresponsible, but what we've done in terms of any of our expenses related to COVID preparations, or PPE, or testing, everything, we are doing what we feel is the right thing to do. We're certainly, our internal CFO is tracking on everything, but it's such a fluid situation that I'm not exactly sure where the cost is on that at this point yet. We've got really two different avenues that we're working on in terms of testing. We're working in close connection with the university and from their perspective in some of the gateway surveillance that they've acquired through third party. And then also the Big Ten level, like Commissioner Warren, the announcement yesterday, conference wide we're accessing. Hopefully when we're able to start that we'll all be using the same testing across the conference as well, but in terms of the exact cost on that I just don't have that yet.
Q. On his biggest worry or concern…
DOLSON: For sure it's health and safety. For sure, just want to make certain that as I said when I started out, that we can't, we know we can't eliminate the risk. We know it's not an athletic virus, we know it's everywhere. But to try and make certain that we can mitigate it as best as possible and control what we can control. The challenge is that, you know, extremely confident in everything we've done internally and I commend everyone that's put together our plans and worked collaboratively with the Big Ten and on our campus, but at the same time our student-athletes are here two hours a day and so there's so many things that we can't control. We really work well with them and have a lot of dialogue in making certain that it's a commitment, it's a partnership that we work together on, but we can only do so much on our end here, and certainly a partnership is really important. So, no question it's just the health and safety and just trying to control everything we can control.
Q. On confidence that football will be played and when basketball will start…
DOLSON: I'd say right now, and I thought Commissioner Warren did a great job of answering some of those questions yesterday, you know extremely hopeful and I feel like we took a nice step yesterday, but to be honest with you, to be totally candid, I feel like we're day-to-day. And I feel like, back to what I said, one of our biggest challenges in our communication is providing clarity. The key thing for us is that we don't get out ahead of ourselves and that we make certain that we're really deliberate. We're taking everything into account every day. The medical advice, making certain that we're following what's happening in our localities, in our states, across the country, and really just trying to make certain that we've got a plan, we're committed. You saw the schedule yesterday. We're hopeful but just, for me, I'm just really thinking almost more day-to-day. As it relates to basketball, we've had, I've had lots of long talks with Archie, and by the way our coaches have just been really great in being, you'd think at times that maybe coaches are just champing at the bit saying hey we just got to get this done, we got to get out there, we've got to make certain we're practicing just like you said, when are we going to play, but our coaches have really been, hey we've got to do this right. If it takes more time, it takes more time. Like I said, I've had long talks with Archie about that, and we're talking. We started with the fall sports at the Big Ten level and we've certainly talked about basketball, but we really haven't gotten to the level where we really can make a, I can give you a good feel for where's that's going to be. We just need to again take baby steps where we are right now.
Q. On fans being in the stands for football…
DOLSON: Great question. We've been working on contingency plans for attendance really for months. In fact, our Ticket Manager, his name is Mike Osmundson, and he is a numbers cruncher. He's really terrific and I can't tell you how many different scenarios we've put together. At one point we had a discussion, should we go ahead and put something out there because again, we want to provide clarity, we want our season ticket holders, our fans to understand and know what our plan is and what we're thinking. But we really took the strategy, which I think was the right way for us to go, was to really take our time. We've got lots of different, I mean I can't tell you how many different plans we have. What we want to do is really take as much time as we can. We want to wait until the last minute and really base those decisions on where everything is locally, where we are as a university, where we are as a state and then release that plan at that point. I'm confident that we're open to, or will have contingency plans for just about any scenario out there, not only just fans in attendance, but just all of our social distancing protocols, and how would you serve concession stand food in a social distancing situation, all the different, from tailgating, to parking and there's different scenarios in each one of those. So, I'm proud of our staff and all the contingencies we've put together, worked months on them. Obviously, we're close because you can see where the schedule came out yesterday, but I just feel it's prudent to just wait because I wouldn't just want to put something out there and three days later something changes and say well now it's this. So hopefully we put it out there, at least for the first few games it'll be whatever it'll be, but we'll also say that that could change throughout the season as well.
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