CIAA
Challenge
A serious altercation between student-athletes broke out during the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association’s (CIAA) awards luncheon the day preceding its 2013 football championship game between Winston-Salem State University and Virginia State University. One of the student-athletes ended up in the hospital as a result. With tensions high, numerous entities affected by the crisis and no existing CIAA crisis communications plan in place to guide them, c21 helped to manage the messaging with local and national media and CIAA fans who were planning to attend the game and immediately knew about the incident via postings on social media.
Solution
c21 immediately secured a private room to avoid public conversations between school officials and athletic coaches that might be overheard by media attending the luncheon. Then, CIAA officials and c21 requested school administrators and sports information directors only issue statements after the CIAA announced its official messaging.
c21 worked with the CIAA’s first female Black commissioner, conference staff, legal support and the local authorities to learn all the facts and issued an initial statement within 45 minutes of the incident. We provided regular updated statements to media and through social media for fan communication, until later that evening when the CIAA decided to cancel the championship game. c21 managed that announcement and immediately fielded calls from local and national media outlets, including the Winston-Salem Journal and USA Today, Fox News, CNN and CBS Sports. While media will often only cover the salacious nature of an event like this, the coverage included our key message that the event was canceled due to concerns around student and fan safety.
Results
The media coverage was fair and balanced, but there were no glowing accounts of the how the incident was handled. Most fans were upset about the cancellation, but with c21 managing engagement and answering questions one-on-one, we were able to clearly state that the fight was in violation of the Conference’s policy and most people understood. We also worked through refunds for ticket holders in the weeks that followed.
Following the incident, the CIAA made several changes to its governance policies, including a zero tolerance for violence and greater control over the communication of member institutions (schools) during a crisis. c21 helped the CIAA communicate policy changes to its member institutions, developed a newsletter for better fan communication and created a detailed crisis communications plan to guide the Conference should any future crises occur.