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The Daily Tar Heel

Q&A: Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO Gary Stokan talks UNC-Auburn, COVID-19 precautions and more

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Seats of Kenan Stadium on Sunday, June 7, 2020.

Following decisions from the Pac-12 and Big 10 to move to conference-only schedules for fall sports, the North Carolina football team’s week two match-up with Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff was thrown into question with speculation that the ACC could follow suit. Summer Sports Editor Zachary Crain caught up with Peach Bowl, Inc. CEO Gary Stokan to discuss conference plus-one schedules, the Kickoff game’s potential impact and more. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Daily Tar Heel: One of the big things right now is the possibility of conference-only scheduling. Can you explain some of the scenarios you could see happening if the ACC or SEC goes conference-only?

Gary Stokan: Hopefully the ACC and SEC don’t follow the Pac-12 and the Big 10 and go conference-only. If they did, we would lose our North Carolina-Auburn game, Georgia-Virginia game and Florida State-West Virginia games. If they went to conference plus-one, then we could play West Virginia vs. Virginia and North Carolina vs. Auburn. If they went conference plus-two, then we could play all three Chick-fil-A Kickoff games as scheduled.

DTH: Can you explain the idea of conference plus-one and conference plus-two schedules?

GS: Sure, the conference plus-one would be the eight conference games that they currently have scheduled and then the one Power Five game that they have scheduled, so in North Carolina’s case it would be Auburn, in N.C. State’s case it would be Mississippi State, Texas plays LSU and Tennessee plays Oklahoma. Notre Dame would need the most help because the rivalry games would take place with Florida-Florida State, Kentucky-Louisville, Georgia-Georgia Tech and South Carolina-Clemson. Notre Dame would lose three games, so what I’ve suggested is the ACC puts Syracuse who lost a game, Miami who lost Michigan State and Alabama who lost USC on the Notre Dame schedule. So that would make up those three games with Clemson, Louisville and Georgia Tech who they lost to the rivalry games. It’s basically the ACC would play all their conference games plus-one Power Five game. 

DTH: If the games do go on in Atlanta, what would be some of the precautions taken to try and limit the spread of COVID-19?

GS: We have a meeting coming up on July 23 with Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but talking to the six (athletic directors) and Mercedes-Benz, we’re looking at things like everybody having to wear a mask, there won't be any cheerleaders or bands, we wouldn’t do our team walks, we wouldn’t have our tailgate zone before the game and we’d probably have either clear bags or no bags at all. Those are some of the precautions, the goal in all of this would be to have the safest environment possible for anybody that steps inside of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

DTH: One thing people have said about conference-only scheduling is that it will be easier to maintain one set of guidelines within each conference, has there been any kind of communication with the conferences to make sure everyone’s going by the same precautions if they are going to go by a conference-plus schedule?

GS: The NCAA put out their protocols I think (Friday) or (Thursday), and certainly all the three Big 12, ACC and SEC conferences, as well as the Pac-12 and Big 10 would adhere to those same testing modules. That’s one of the reasons why you’re going to see conference plus-one or conference plus-two because the Group of Five and the FCS schools probably wouldn’t be able to have the same kind of testing modules as the Power 5 conferences. 

DTH: You’ve talked about the difference precautions that people and the teams would have to take if the games do go on, but is there anything outside of those that would be different about the experience? 

GS: Just the capacity of the number of fans. If we would have had the opportunity not to have COVID and be able to sell all the tickets we would have had three sell outs with 72,000 for each of the games. We’ll meet with Mercedes-Benz and our medical people and talk about capacities, but what we’ve modeled is 25, 30 and 50 percent. So that’ll be a little bit different, at 25 percent you’re probably talking approximately 17,500 fans being in the stadium. 

DTH: Obviously playing in these big early season match-ups can be a jumping off point for a team to have success later in the year and maybe get into a bigger bowl game. Can you talk about the impact this game could have on a team like UNC that’s up and coming?

GS: Well that’s one of the big points to playing a plus-one. If you’re North Carolina, the implications of beating Auburn — and some people have picked Carolina to win their division — now all of a sudden you’ve got a shot at playing in the (College Football Playoff) semifinal games if you win your conference championship. So in the North Carolina-Auburn game, you’ve got two top-20 teams, two of the best young quarterbacks in the country and two of the greatest coaches in the country, it makes for a great college football game to kick off the season. It’s very important for both Auburn and North Carolina, because whoever wins that game could find themselves right in the mix of being a part of a New Year’s Six bowl game or even the semifinals.  

@zachycrain

@DTHSports | sports@dailytarheel.com

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