David Cutcliffe: Giving Players Election Day Off Unnecessary and For Show

The NCAA ruled that all college football players would have Tuesday, November 3 off for election day, to make sure the players had the opportunity to vote.

Duke coach David Cutcliffe understands the point behind the ruling, and Duke has helped support the players’ efforts to vote. He doesn’t agree with the day off, however, especially in a week when he’s trying to prepare the team for a rivalry game against UNC.

“If I thought it was more purposeful, then I would be fine with it,” he said. “We have worked very hard with our team. Anybody that was not registered is now registered. We have worked very hard. We’ve had our people administratively in football help them get their ballots and make sure they are voting and have voted.”

“I think it’s a little more showy, honestly—just say it like it is—than it has purpose,” he added.

Many of Duke’s players are from out of state and voted by mail. Others were able to take advantage of early voting. Still, everyone gets Tuesday off entirely, which is scrambling North Carolina week.

“Our weekly schedules are jammed anyway,” he said. “When you build Monday as your day off, we can’t adjust our Tuesday to Monday, because we’re not going to interfere with our guys’ academic process. It’s not an ideal thing to lose. We can’t pick it up later in the day. We can’t change anything on Monday. I’m not a fan of it. It sounds good but doesn’t really serve the purpose that I think it could.”

Because of Duke’s class schedule, there aren’t any other available times to get the team together to practice.

“That’s it,” Cutcliffe said. “We don’t have a fix. What we have to do is probably use our Sunday a little differently just from a preparation standpoint. Basically, it’s costing us a day of practice. There’s no other way to twist it. We had some of the players say we could go after midnight. I don’t think that would be ideal. So we are where we are.”

Add us as a preferred source on Google