SALT LAKE CITY — The first day of June could be a big one for athletes from the University of Utah, Pac-12 schools and other programs around the nation who have been sidelined because of the coronavirus pandemic. It also offers an encouraging sign of positive things possibly to come — namely collegiate sports — for the 2020-21 school year.
On Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Council voted to end a moratorium on voluntary workouts by football and basketball players beginning June 1. That came a few days after Utah athletics director Mark Harlan voiced optimism about all sports beginning when they’re supposed to in the next few months — beginning with soccer in August, followed by women’s volleyball and football.
“We’re planning to be ready for all those sports to begin on time,” Harlan said in a “Schools & Sports – When and How Do Large Groups Return?” forum that was hosted by former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt on the U of U Executive Education YouTube account.
In addition, Pac-12 presidents and chancellors met during their annual spring meeting on Monday and offered some hope. The conference CEOs released a statement announcing they had discussed how to deal with the COVID-19 crisis developments and reaffirmed that the Pac-12 “will be guided by science and data, the counsel of medical experts, and the health and safety of everyone connected to our campuses in our decision-making.”
The CEOs will vote next week to determine whether to allow student-athletes to take advantage of the NCAA’s new ruling after the league’s current edict of not allowing on-campus workouts and team activities expires May 31.
That June 1 campus reopening would be an important moment in getting sports back in action at the university level, Harlan noted.
“We are approaching a really exciting time. June 1 for the NCAA is really looking like the opportunity where we could reopen our athletic facilities,” Harlan said. “We’ve been working very hard on that. So once we get our students back and they start working on a volunteer basis with our strength coaches, I think we’ll begin the process, so to speak, of bringing them back.”
There is not a rush to make a decision on the fall sports at this point. Six weeks is the minimum time football programs would need to train for the season. That timeline would have the Ute football team beginning practices around July 23. Utah is scheduled to kick off against BYU at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Sept. 3.
But safety is the No. 1 priority going forward with this pandemic.
“We consulted with our Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee, over 50 of the world’s leading infectious disease experts, public health experts, physicians, researchers and trainers,” the Pac-12 CEO statement read. “The Committee has developed a comprehensive set of return-to-play protocols and guidelines carefully designed to enable our member universities, when they determine it is appropriate, to as safely as possible bring student-athletes back to campus and ultimately resume athletic competition.
“These guidelines, which will be continuously updated, address all aspects of intercollegiate athletic activity, and include requirements related to testing, contact tracing, hygiene protocols, education and disease prevention. In determining whether to adopt the Committee’s recommendations, as well as any future adjustments to them, our priority will be health and safety.”
The NCAA has mandated that voluntary workouts for basketball and football will take place “mostly on their own,” the Associated Press reported, and will be subject to adherence to safety and health protocols put in place by schools and local officials.
It wasn’t announced when voluntary workouts for other sports will be determined.
“We encourage each school to use its discretion to make the best decisions possible for football and basketball student-athletes within the appropriate resocialization framework,” Penn athletic director M. Grace Calhoun said in a statement. “Allowing for voluntary athletics activity acknowledges that reopening our campuses will be an individual decision but should be based on advice from medical experts.”
Jon Wilner pointed out in his Pac-12 Hotline report that schools could have to pay around $300,000 to have football players, coaches, trainers, strength and conditioning personnel and other staff members participate in coronavirus testing and contract tracing.
“Given that a canceled football season would wipe out 80 percent of each athletic department’s revenue in 2020-21, the cost of testing is seemingly irrelevant, right? Yes, but there’s an extra layer to consider,” Wilner wrote. “... But what if the presidents and chancellors determine (reasonably) that the entire campus community must be tested regularly — the athletes cannot have special treatment, after all.
“Add the students, faculty and administrative and operations staff, and that’s 30,000 single-use tests on average.”
That, he calculated, would come at a price of more than $100 million.
“None of these issues should be considered deal-breakers in the push to play, but it’s easy to game out a scenario that ends with difficult decisions and myriad potholes,” Wilner added. “Based on their plans to open campuses in the fall, the presidents and chancellors obviously have reason to believe the issues can be resolved effectively. But progress on the testing and tracing front is worth, well, tracking.”