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Sports Illustrated
NCAA Set to Take Significant Step on Plan for College Football Preseason
The NCAA's long-talked-about six-week preseason practice plan will soon become reality.
Ross Dellenger
June 8, 2020
Football coaches could begin interacting with their players as soon as
the second week of July and by mid-July, they’ll be conducting
walk-through practices, with a ball. That’s according to an NCAA
proposal set for approval this week.
Continuing their progress toward an on-time kickoff to the season,
college athletic leaders are set to take a giant leap down that path.
On Thursday, the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee is
expected to approve the long-talked-about six-week preseason practice
plan and recommend it to the NCAA D-I Council. The plan is in the last
stages of finalization. A draft of the plan has been circulated to
conference offices and athletic departments for feedback. The D-I
Council would approve the final version of the plan at its next meeting
on June 17. Only small adjustments are expected over the next three
days. “We’re 90% there,” Shane Lyons, the West Virginia athletic
director and chair of the Oversight Committee, told Sports Illustrated
in an interview Monday.
Under the plan, normal “required” summer workouts, which includes
coaching interaction, could begin for some as early as July 6. Last
month, the NCAA granted schools the ability beginning June 1 to hold
on-campus voluntary workouts, which do not include coaching
interaction. In required workouts, athletes can spend six hours a week
with the strength staff on weight training and conditioning and spend
two hours with coaches for film study. The required workouts would lead
into what’s being termed as “enhanced” summer training, a two-week
stretch constituting the first portion of the proposed six-week
preseason practice plan.
In enhanced summer training, athletes are allowed 20 hours a week for
activities. That includes eight hours of strength training and film
review, an hour walk-through practice each day and an hour of daily
team meetings. Enhanced training has been compared to NFL OTAs, but
players cannot wear helmets or pads during walk-throughs. However, they
can use a football, the plan says. A normal four-week preseason camp
would begin after two weeks of enhanced training.
The start date of each of these activity segments—required workouts,
enhanced training and preseason camp—is determined by a team’s first
game. Those starting on Week 1, Labor Day weekend, could begin required
workouts July 13, enhanced training July 24 and camp Aug. 7. For those
starting a week before, on Week 0, activities can move up by a week.
The final version of the plan could see slight adjustments in those
dates, says Lyons.
The Oversight Committee decided against extending the unlimited camp
hours beyond the date that a school begins classes. A traditional
August camp normally takes place in the two-to-three weeks before class
starts. For the most part, coaches are allowed an unlimited time with
athletes. Once classes begin, they are restricted to 20 hours a week.
Several universities have moved up their start dates to early August in
an attempt to complete the fall semester ahead of the traditional flu
season, a way to help prevent a second wave of coronavirus. For
instance, Notre Dame will begin classes Aug. 10, two weeks early. That
gives coach Brian Kelly and staff only a few days to work with athletes
during the traditional camp time. “Coaches are looking for uniformity,
but we’ve always had institutions start classes at different times,”
Lyons says. “The coaches starting earlier are going to say they’re at a
disadvantage, but even when they’re not in classes, they’re right
around the 20 hours anyway.”
Coaches are on board with the preseason plan, says Todd Berry,
executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. In
fact, officials are beginning to now study specifics related to camp
and in-season practices, as well as sideline protocols during games.
“It is going to be a unique year in seeing social distancing on the
sideline,” Berry says. Imagine older coaches wearing masks during games
and a team’s sideline area—between the 30-yard lines—expanded to
provide social distancing. Also, August camp may again include
two-a-days, just not the ones you’re used to. In an effort to minimize
risk, coaches have discussed holding two-to-four separate practices a
day, each including a different and smaller group of players.
Meanwhile, the NBA is considering a plan to require coaches of 65 years
or older to wear masks during games while on the bench. The same is
being discussed on some campuses for football coaches on the sidelines.
“I’m not sure if that’s going to become universal or local, but I can
tell you that we’ve talked about that here—coaches will be wearing PPE,
especially the older ones,” Lyons says. At least five coaches at the
FBS level are 65 or older, including Alabama’s Nick Saban and North
Carolina’s Mack Brown, both 68.
Team meetings will be different too. There might not be any at all,
says Berry. He’s heard from coaches who plan to continue holding
virtual meetings. “Coaches have learned a whole new way to communicate
with players,” he says. “That’s probably not going away—this year and
in the future.”
All of these plans forward could be derailed with virus spikes across
states and campuses, Lyons warns. Already, programs have reported that
several of their athletes have tested positive since returning to
voluntary workouts, an expected result. However, several states are
experiencing a surge in the virus since reopening. Lyons doesn’t expect
a universal shutdown if the virus delays or interrupts a portion of
schools during the preseason. That is a local issue. “You could end up
having a state that is having a spike and go back to Phase I,” he says.
“That’s where you’ll have to deal with it on a local basis and not a
national basis.”
As part of the preseason plan, a team must practice four weeks before
playing its first game, a rule that could conceivably impact
early-season games if a program’s camp is interrupted. College
officials have long expected that not all 130 FBS teams will start on
time. In fact, during a conference call with members of the White House
reopening task force last week, NCAA president Mark Emmert said
officials were preparing as if every team won’t play football this
year. “In all likelihood we’ll have some problems in preseason camps.
There are just so many universities,” says Berry, who sits on the
Oversight Committee.
Virus outbreaks aren’t only possible in the preseason. Many expect that
some programs won’t play a full schedule of games because of outbreaks.
“The idea of interrupted seasons is fairly likely,” says Berry. “The
idea of flexible scheduling is needed. With the number of universities
we have, on Sunday you might find out your opponent isn’t going to play
this week. Got to pick up another game. Might have two teams show up
and can’t play (that day).”
Conference commissioners are exploring in-season universal testing
protocols for their conferences, Lyons says. They could eventually
evolve into a nationwide policy, but those conversations are in their
infancy. The latest discussions involve a road team testing each of its
athletes Friday morning before it departs. Both teams would then
conduct tests Saturday morning before the game. However, many
unanswered questions remain. The most notable of which involves those
athletes who did not test positive. “We at West Virginia can’t say,
‘We’re contact tracing and if he shows up positive, everybody he’s been
around is also considered ineligible for the game,’” Lyons says. “Then
another school says, ‘It’s just the person who shows up positive.’ We
have to be on the same page.”
Advancements in testing have administrators confident in frequent
in-season testing, which in turn has them optimistic about playing a
2020 season. However, the issue of attendance remains uncertain.
Several athletic directors have announced potential plans to fill
stadiums to 25% to 50% of capacity. Others are expecting full stadiums,
which many doctors say is implausible. Meanwhile, another group is
delaying concrete answers regarding attendance until as late as
mid-August.
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