Challenging Year Provides Rewarding Moment For WVU’s Lyons
March 10, 2021 01:01 PM | General, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It turns out the most challenging year of Shane Lyons' professional career was also his most rewarding.
This afternoon, Lyons was recognized by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) as one of its four Athletics Directors of the Year for the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Also joining Lyons as this year's Football Bowl Subdivision recipients are Coastal Carolina's Matt Hogue, BYU's Tom Holmoe and Oregon's Rob Mullens. According to the announcement, the award "highlights the efforts of athletics directors at all levels for their commitment and positive contributions to student-athletes, campuses and their surrounding communities."
Lyons has certainly contributed a lot of positives in year filled with negatives.
Right around this time last spring, a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic shut down the country, canceled March Madness and threatened the college football season. Athletics directors from Washington to Miami were staring into the abyss.
Lyons, as chair of the NCAA Division I Football Committee, was presented with a crisis that required some momentous decision making.
Could college football be played safely in the fall during a worldwide pandemic? If not, what does that mean for the future of collegiate sports?
Lyons not only had to steer his alma mater through this crisis, but also an entire industry because of his involvement on the Division I Football Committee. Late last summer, when some columnists and pundits were recommending college football be canceled, Lyons and West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee urged everyone to be patient and not overreact to each piece of conflicting medical data being reported.
The crisis reached a tipping point in early August when the Big Ten and the Pac-12 conferences voted to postpone their football seasons. The ACC and SEC chose to continue, leaving the Big 12's decision to play or postpone meaning billions in television revenue were potentially hanging in the balance.
When the Big 12 presidents and athletic directors met via video conferencing to make a decision on the 2020 football season, Gee and Lyons were compelling in their willingness to cautiously press forward.
"Gordon and I had some conversations late last summer that we weren't going to waver on the basis of what two other conferences were deciding to do for whatever reasons they had," Lyons recalled. "Our feeling was 'let's hear from our medical folks, let's hear from other outside medical experts and understand that we have challenges and risks and what do we need to do to keep moving forward safely?'
"If we had to pivot, we were going to pivot, but we just thought at that time that it was just too soon to make that determination that college football was not going to be played realizing, in turn, that if we didn't play college football, we weren't going to do anything else," he added.
Lyons continued talking to the medical experts. He also talked to other coaches, athletics directors, presidents and student-athletes to get a complete 360-degree view of the situation.
Those discussions only reaffirmed his resolve to press forward with a season.
"In my talks with student-athletes, they wanted to compete, and it hasn't been without its challenges by any means with not having fans and some of those issues, but the goal was to put the student-athletes back on the practice fields and competition fields safely and having them get an education - and that's what we did," he explained.
Had they not?
"All of us would have had our financial challenges, but if you look at not playing college football from a financial standpoint, for the industry, it would have been catastrophic," Lyons admitted. "It's bad now, but how much worse would it have been?
"None of us would have had any opportunity for conference revenue because of our TV contracts," he said. "Maybe we would have had a College Football Playoff in the spring and what would that have looked like? It would have been a real bad situation."
Lyons also brought up another issue that was not discussed much at the time – the mental health and well-being of the student-athletes had there not been a season.
"The question that no one has answered either is what has been the mental health aspect of this to our student-athletes? It's been hard enough with the testing and getting through, but what would it have been like to them shutting sports down and not having anything going on in the fall? That would have been a really bad situation," he said.
In the meantime, Lyons had to make some difficult decisions within his department to help it survive the pandemic.
He said he relied on the talents of his senior leadership team and also the University administration to put forth a solid plan moving forward.
"I give a lot of credit to the people in our University administration for working hand-in-hand with our Board of Governors and being transparent through all of this," Lyons said. "And I really appreciate what our staff has been able to do this year. We had to make some very tough decisions about what was going to happen with the staff from furloughs to pay reductions to, unfortunately, eliminating and not hiring some positions as we moved through this."
At one point last summer, Lyons was putting in 14- to 16-hour days, including Sundays. He learned long ago to keep an even keel when things are going well, and also when things are not going so well.
"My analogy is like that duck you see floating on top of the water," he explained. "On the surface, the duck just looks like its sitting there, but underneath, the feet are always moving. That's sometimes how I've felt my life has been this past year."
Always a positive person by nature, the Parkersburg native believes the fog may be finally clearing a bit as more people are getting vaccinated and becoming more comfortable with resuming everyday life.
The country's COVID-19 numbers are continuing to decline, and if enough people can get vaccinated before some of the variants become more prevalent, that could help get this thing under control in the not-too-distant future.
"I feel we're moving in the right direction," he said. "The continued vaccine rollout is going to help. Hopefully, the medical experts are correct by the end of May those adults who want vaccines can have vaccines, but we're still not out of this totally.
"Even though I'm an optimist, I'm also a realist, and it's not just a matter of flipping a switch and thinking that the next football season we are going to be completely back to the way we once were with packed stadiums across the country," Lyons continued. "Am I planning on having 100% capacity back in Milan Puskar Stadium? I'm hopeful, but I don't have a crystal ball to say for certain. If the medical people say we can do it, that's going to be our goal."
Lyons admits one of the most satisfying and humbling experiences of his career happened right after West Virginia defeated Eastern Kentucky in the 2021 season opener at Milan Puskar Stadium.
There were no fans in the stands, no tailgate parties nor the excitement and enthusiasm you normally see on a late summer afternoon in Morgantown. It was just two teams and a handful of support personnel out there for a football game.
But they were playing football!
When it was over, coach Neal Brown and his players made it a point to give their athletics director the game ball as a way to show their gratitude for the opportunity to continue doing something they love.
"That football will always have great meaning to me," Lyons said. "We were steadfast in our decisions, we held our ground, and we kept moving forward."
It's no exaggeration to say that Shane Lyons was among those who helped save the 2021 college football season as chair of the NCAA Division I Football Committee.
As a result, there were many jobs industry-wide that were saved last fall as well.
This afternoon, Lyons was recognized by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) as one of its four Athletics Directors of the Year for the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Also joining Lyons as this year's Football Bowl Subdivision recipients are Coastal Carolina's Matt Hogue, BYU's Tom Holmoe and Oregon's Rob Mullens. According to the announcement, the award "highlights the efforts of athletics directors at all levels for their commitment and positive contributions to student-athletes, campuses and their surrounding communities."
Lyons has certainly contributed a lot of positives in year filled with negatives.
Right around this time last spring, a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic shut down the country, canceled March Madness and threatened the college football season. Athletics directors from Washington to Miami were staring into the abyss.
Lyons, as chair of the NCAA Division I Football Committee, was presented with a crisis that required some momentous decision making.
Could college football be played safely in the fall during a worldwide pandemic? If not, what does that mean for the future of collegiate sports?
Lyons not only had to steer his alma mater through this crisis, but also an entire industry because of his involvement on the Division I Football Committee. Late last summer, when some columnists and pundits were recommending college football be canceled, Lyons and West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee urged everyone to be patient and not overreact to each piece of conflicting medical data being reported.
The crisis reached a tipping point in early August when the Big Ten and the Pac-12 conferences voted to postpone their football seasons. The ACC and SEC chose to continue, leaving the Big 12's decision to play or postpone meaning billions in television revenue were potentially hanging in the balance.
When the Big 12 presidents and athletic directors met via video conferencing to make a decision on the 2020 football season, Gee and Lyons were compelling in their willingness to cautiously press forward.
"Gordon and I had some conversations late last summer that we weren't going to waver on the basis of what two other conferences were deciding to do for whatever reasons they had," Lyons recalled. "Our feeling was 'let's hear from our medical folks, let's hear from other outside medical experts and understand that we have challenges and risks and what do we need to do to keep moving forward safely?'
"If we had to pivot, we were going to pivot, but we just thought at that time that it was just too soon to make that determination that college football was not going to be played realizing, in turn, that if we didn't play college football, we weren't going to do anything else," he added.
Lyons continued talking to the medical experts. He also talked to other coaches, athletics directors, presidents and student-athletes to get a complete 360-degree view of the situation.
Those discussions only reaffirmed his resolve to press forward with a season.
"In my talks with student-athletes, they wanted to compete, and it hasn't been without its challenges by any means with not having fans and some of those issues, but the goal was to put the student-athletes back on the practice fields and competition fields safely and having them get an education - and that's what we did," he explained.
Had they not?
"All of us would have had our financial challenges, but if you look at not playing college football from a financial standpoint, for the industry, it would have been catastrophic," Lyons admitted. "It's bad now, but how much worse would it have been?
"None of us would have had any opportunity for conference revenue because of our TV contracts," he said. "Maybe we would have had a College Football Playoff in the spring and what would that have looked like? It would have been a real bad situation."
Lyons also brought up another issue that was not discussed much at the time – the mental health and well-being of the student-athletes had there not been a season.
"The question that no one has answered either is what has been the mental health aspect of this to our student-athletes? It's been hard enough with the testing and getting through, but what would it have been like to them shutting sports down and not having anything going on in the fall? That would have been a really bad situation," he said.
In the meantime, Lyons had to make some difficult decisions within his department to help it survive the pandemic.
He said he relied on the talents of his senior leadership team and also the University administration to put forth a solid plan moving forward."I give a lot of credit to the people in our University administration for working hand-in-hand with our Board of Governors and being transparent through all of this," Lyons said. "And I really appreciate what our staff has been able to do this year. We had to make some very tough decisions about what was going to happen with the staff from furloughs to pay reductions to, unfortunately, eliminating and not hiring some positions as we moved through this."
At one point last summer, Lyons was putting in 14- to 16-hour days, including Sundays. He learned long ago to keep an even keel when things are going well, and also when things are not going so well.
"My analogy is like that duck you see floating on top of the water," he explained. "On the surface, the duck just looks like its sitting there, but underneath, the feet are always moving. That's sometimes how I've felt my life has been this past year."
Always a positive person by nature, the Parkersburg native believes the fog may be finally clearing a bit as more people are getting vaccinated and becoming more comfortable with resuming everyday life.
The country's COVID-19 numbers are continuing to decline, and if enough people can get vaccinated before some of the variants become more prevalent, that could help get this thing under control in the not-too-distant future.
"I feel we're moving in the right direction," he said. "The continued vaccine rollout is going to help. Hopefully, the medical experts are correct by the end of May those adults who want vaccines can have vaccines, but we're still not out of this totally.
"Even though I'm an optimist, I'm also a realist, and it's not just a matter of flipping a switch and thinking that the next football season we are going to be completely back to the way we once were with packed stadiums across the country," Lyons continued. "Am I planning on having 100% capacity back in Milan Puskar Stadium? I'm hopeful, but I don't have a crystal ball to say for certain. If the medical people say we can do it, that's going to be our goal."
Lyons admits one of the most satisfying and humbling experiences of his career happened right after West Virginia defeated Eastern Kentucky in the 2021 season opener at Milan Puskar Stadium.
There were no fans in the stands, no tailgate parties nor the excitement and enthusiasm you normally see on a late summer afternoon in Morgantown. It was just two teams and a handful of support personnel out there for a football game.
But they were playing football!
When it was over, coach Neal Brown and his players made it a point to give their athletics director the game ball as a way to show their gratitude for the opportunity to continue doing something they love.
"That football will always have great meaning to me," Lyons said. "We were steadfast in our decisions, we held our ground, and we kept moving forward."
It's no exaggeration to say that Shane Lyons was among those who helped save the 2021 college football season as chair of the NCAA Division I Football Committee.
As a result, there were many jobs industry-wide that were saved last fall as well.
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