The Goal
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a non-profit organization that regulates student athletes from American institutions and conferences. After canceling all sports in March of 2020, they needed a plan to deliver these Championships in 2021. The NCAA turned to Stratoscope to develop a set of guidelines for all scenarios to ensure the 2021 events would be Delivered successfully.
The Challenge
At the height of COVID, the National Collegiate Athletic Association not only needed COVID guidelines, policies and procedures developed for every sport, they also needed a team that could ensure the delivery of each event. Our team identified various challenges the NCAA would face and developed an operations center to be the center of the delivery of 296 events to be held from March – June of 2021. The Ops Center plan was developed and staffed by Stratoscope to provide appropriate levels of support to the event teams around the country.
The NCAA quickly realized they could lean on our team to assist in all things operations and decided they also needed Stratoscope personnel to be a part of each of the events. We were able to quickly mobilize teams of event experts to support the NCAA staff, testing providers and local organizers.
Operationalizing a nationwide testing plan became the focus while ensuring each host site could implement the guidelines developed and approved by the NCAA Medical Advisory Board. All taking place under intense scrutiny from teams that make up the NCAA membership.
The logistics, staffing and technology required for success were significant! When one of the vendors responsible for those pieces came up short early on, the NCAA turned to our team to help develop plan B and to operationalize new vendors. The Stratoscope promise of ensuring positive outcomes was tested, we dispatched a team to take control of the logistics aspects and worked closely on the staffing needs. Our team jumped in at every event to ensure success.
Additionally, our team was responsible for tracing all positive tests during the events. Each positive test required tracing to understand if teammates or opponents needed additional testing, quarantine etc. Our team conducted hundreds of investigations and presented serious findings to the NCAA and the NCAA Medical Advisory Board for determination of next steps.
The Services
- COVID Guidelines, Policies, Procedures
- Operations Center Development and Staffing
- Contingency Planning and deployment
- On-site COVID Operations
- Contact Tracing Investigations
The Results
Under the direction of our team, the NCAA was able to host 296 events despite the pandemic. Together, we developed a plan to ensure that attendees could achieve their goals to become NCAA Champions. We remain the current security consultant for all NCAA events. Clients come to Stratoscope because of our people and experience. We have the ability to simplify complex solutions, including situational awareness during a global pandemic. We are a solutions partner, not a vendor. We see the minute details and ensure our clients’ teams are ready for any challenge. We are Stratoscope, the industry-proven event solutions company.
