2014 CIAA Media Day Commissioner's Observation

2014 CIAA Media Day Commissioner's Observation from CIAA Media Relations on Vimeo.

DURHAM, North Carolina -- CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams said last Thursday as she kicked off the 2014 Preseason Football Media Day at the Durham Convention Center that the cancellation of last year's CIAA Football Championship Game was a "dark day in history" for the conference but a significant lesson was learned.

"It reminded us," McWilliams said, "of what we should be focused on and what is most important to this conference, and that is the welfare and the experience of our student/athletes." Speaking prior to media interviews with coaches and players from each of the league's 12 teams, McWilliams said an ad hoc committee of the conference's Board of Directors, the league's presidents, decided that no further action would be taken against the institutions involved but also made changes to the conference's constitution so that "what happened last year will never happen again."

"The bottom line," McWilliams said in also announcing conference initiatives to promote fair play, ethical conduct and sportsmanship, "isthere is zero tolerance for behaviors that diminish the values and the mission of this great conference." When it got down to play on the field, Winston-Salem State in the South and Virginia State in the North, the two teams that were scheduled to meet in last year's championship game, were the preseason selections by the league's head coaches and sports information directors to repeat in their respective divisions. But things will be a little different, at least at WSSU.

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