The first steps were taken to get sports back Wednesday as the news broke at Yahoo Sports and other places reporting the NCAA has said schools can start having players in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball back on campus starting June 1.
The window created is June 1-30, which allows everybody some wiggle room if there is a massive outbreak.
The guess here is that outbreak would have to be massive to shut everything down again. Don’t expect a couple of positive tests to shut anything down because each school will probably have a few.
The key to all of this really has been how to handle it since everything was shut down in mid-March without a single SEC baseball league game being played.
There will be “voluntary” workouts for the players. That’s in quotes because while the schools can’t force players to attend these workouts they also can’t force coaches to give playing time to players that just don’t want to show up.
The Southeastern Conference is expected to give a thumbs-up to members Friday as the NCAA’s move was one of the worst-kept secrets in sports.
Yahoo Sports reported that the Division I Council is expected to address sports other than football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball as soon as possible, but it’s expected within the next week.
Conferences, schools, governments and other places will, of course, have to give the go-ahead but the NCAA wanted to at least maintain the appearance of being in control of something with this news leaking out more than being announced.
There will be no NCAA mandate on required frequency of testing, according to the story at Yahoo Sports. Each school will have to develop protocols on the tests, which cost approximately $100 each.
“No one wants to get into that,” a source told Yahoo Sports. “They want to leave it to your own campus and state.”
Arkansas never had stay-at-home orders given by the state and many of the players stayed in Fayetteville during the shutdown.
