Bob Beretta, the replacement of the Army’s football calendar to that of general baseball manager as the industry deadline approaches.
“Everyone will communicate for weeks before the deadline, then one hour before the deadline, all those agreements will be concluded,” West Point’s senior athletic associate director said.
The analogy with baseball is appropriate. Beretta, the contact to make plans, has been a remarkable person at Saint Bonaventure University. Athletic director Mike Buddie, who was linked to Beretta every day of the process, spent all or part of five seasons with the Yankees and Brewers, winning a World Ring as standard with the first in 1998.
Phone calls and TEXT messages? Like a DOJ, too much in 18 hours.
Even when things seemed fixed, they were quite the opposite. On the morning of August 24, the sports branch was scheduled to announce a schedule of 12 games. An hour before the transmission of an exit, one of the parties to the conflict withdrew, resulting in a change. 11-game calendar that reflected an opening date of September 26.
That date was filled less than 48 hours later, when Beretta managed to reach an agreement for a vacation in Cincinnati. Finally, after Beretta and her team worked on more than two hundred – lees – versions of a 2020 football calendar, a list of 12 games was complete.
A task that seemed highly unlikely when several meetings and independents canceled their seasons. The army, an independent, had nine of its games originally scheduled through the council, adding against its independent colleagues UConn and UMass.
“If I had been told in July that we might have built a 12-game calendar from scratch and had no games opposed to those independents, I would in fact have no idea that would be possible,” Beretta said, acknowledging every aspect that remains fluid given that the virus can wreak havoc on a list. “We go through a 10-day series in which we lost a game every day. He’s become frantic. We were pushing and making a lot of calls. “
Reconstruction paintings of the calendar necessarily began when winter winds were still blowing at West Point, a time after everything in sports calendars was erased due to the pandemic.
It was around this time that Beretta was talking on the phone and talking to more than 50 schools about how to make long-term plans. During the process, an idea could be made of what the groups sincerely sought as partners to make plans, whether it was a one-time deal or a house deal.
This conversation box proved useful when it came time to plug the many holes that opened in the calendar.
“I think in March we’re just looking to create safeguards, contingencies and relationships,” he said. “When it came time to execute, we laid the groundwork. “
Dominoes began to fall in the first two weeks of July when the Ivy League and Patriot League announced the cancellation of the fall sports competition. The Black Knights had a scheduled house game opposite a member of the football championship subdivision conferences, a start to the season. September 4 under bucknell’s opposite lighting fixtures and an October 10 assembly with Princeton.
There were a number of calls, basically to other FCS meetings that were still pending. Within a week, three other conflicting parts of the Army, MiamiArray Ohio, east michigan and Buffalo, had their season canceled when the MAC eliminated fall sports.
“That day we were talking on the phone all day talking to other people and looking to find matches,” said Beretta, who has worked at West Point for 34 years. “We have already had conversations with others to get more vacancies if the MAC does not play when it became a reality, we were forced to act quickly.
Within a few days, in early August, the number of groups on the army’s initial cancellation schedule reached seven when UConn and UMass announced they would play football this fall.
“The loss of our regional independents hurts us because at the time we were potentially talking about gambling at home and at home,” Beretta said. “Not only did we lose one, but we potentially lost two games with each of them. It was hard to lose the independents a few days apart. “
The Army, which only allows the cadet corps to attend the first two games of the house, with participation in the remaining games of the house to decide according to conditions, also lost the games against Oklahoma and Rice.
The Sooners were scheduled for West Point on September 26, the show’s first assembly at Michie Stadium since 1946 when Red Blaik crossed the band line over the Hudson and Bud Wilkinson was UO’s assistant. Although the big 12 will play this season, its members have 10-game schedules that come with a non-conference house contest.
“We were disappointed and the other people in Oklahoma were disappointed because they sought to get to West Point,” Beretta said. “We will be looking to postpone and we have high hopes that this will happen. I hope we can locate a date that matches both sides. »
After Beretta erased the many piles of gum chips, there’s a ray of hope in the ultimate show. Coach Jeff Monken’s team not only has a full schedule of 12 games, but eight games are at West Point, the maximum since Michie Stadium was completed. in 1924 and one more than the previous Black Knights record.
One of the house’s games opposes another BYU on September 19, a date the Cougars had conveniently to have after pac-12 canceled their season. YU was scheduled to play at Arizona State that day.
CBS has become an herbal transmission spouse for the game and at 3:30 p. m. ET, a space reserved for the SEC, which does not begin its season until the following Saturday.
Army Athletics has a partnership with the network and has had many games in several televised sports on the CBS Sports network. In this case, the star product is a game.
“I’m proud of the BYU game basically because we attacked it strategically,” Beretta said of what will be the first team assembly. “I told Mike I thought it would be content for the national network. We contacted CBS and they were very interested. We believe we can take the SEC’s position that day and we are very happy that it worked. It’s a smart game. “
Only 3 groups remain in the army’s original schedule: annual clashes with rival Air Force service academies (November 7 at West Point) and navy (December 12 in Philadelphia) and Tulane on November 14.
The Air Force is a member of the Mountain West Conference, which canceled fall sports, but the Falcons are expected to play in the army and navy. This is essential because it keeps the festival for the Commander-in-Chief trophy. awarded to the winner of the war to three bands since 1972.
“It’s smart that the CIC is still at stake,” Beretta said. “This is a championship that the players of the 3 service academies fight every year. The fact that he’s still at stake this year is special to them. “
The hope, of course, is that as of Saturday opposite the Middle Tennessee state scale, all 12 of the Black Knights games go as planned.
Beretta is grateful that, at least for now, things are going well.
“We are satisfied with the final product and have tried to maintain a positive attitude and see demanding situations as opportunities,” he said. “We tried to stay on top of progress as they happened and had many contingencies aligned. Unfortunately, we had to do it,” we rebuilt the calendar many times, but we were in a good position to do it because of the fundamental paintings we had made.
I have been a sports editor and editor since 1990 at corporations such as Beckett Publishing, The Topps Company and Comcast Versus Network. I was a freelancer, too.
I have been a sports editor since 1990 with corporations such as Beckett Publishing, The Topps Company and Comcast’s Versus network. I have also been a freelance journalist for school football, NHL and MLB. In addition to being a member of forbes. com, I perform canopy football and basketball for the University of South Florida, Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Lightning for sportstalkflorida. com. I’m also editor of Tampa Bay Business magazine