Athletes Can Return to Campus Monday; FB Season Plans Taking Shape
Athletes in the Pac-12 conference are allowed to return to campus for “voluntary workouts” starting Monday amid signs that the chances for a 2020 football season are improving.
Virtually from the day campuses closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, conference executives, school athletic directors, football coaches, campus administrators and medical experts have been designing various ways to conduct the season. The scenarios range from a full season as scheduled to no season at all.
According to league sources, the plan that seems to be gaining the most traction is a ten-game season, with no contests out of the conference. The games would also presumably be played with limited on-site spectators, or maybe no fans in the stands at all.
For Cal that would mean dropping the road game at UNLV, scheduled for Aug. 29, and home games against TCU, Sept. 5 and Cal Poly, Sept. 12. The latter would have been the return to Berkeley of Beau Baldwin, the Mustangs’ new head coach.
A game would be added against either Colorado or Arizona. Since the Bears and the other two all have five conference home games already scheduled , where the additional game would be played is unclear. This arrangement would also make it likely that the Bears would not open the season on “Weekend 0”, Aug. 29, as is now scheduled.
Some intriguing matchups would be scratched including Oregon-Ohio State, Washington-Michigan and Notre Dame’s annual encounters with USC and Stanford.
The canceling of non-conference games removes one of commissioner Larry Scott’s concerns. Pac-12 schools have agreed to perform COVID-19 and coronavirus antibody tests on all athletes upon their return to campuses for voluntary workouts. Athletes will continue to be tested regularly for COVID-19 as long as they are under the supervision of the schools. Not all schools, including potential non-conference football opponents, will have such rigorous testing requirements.
“I think you’ll want a level of confidence that the team on the other side of the field has followed a similar protocol,” Scott has stated. That point would be moot
As for bringing athletes in starting Monday, every school in the conference is doing it differently especially regarding football players. For example, Utah will invite in-state players back on Monday, out of state players June 22 and incoming freshmen June 29. Colorado wants to bring everybody in as soon as they can get to Boulder.
When asked what Cal’s plans were, an athletic department spokesman said in an email, “We're still working with the campus and medical experts to finalize a plan for allowing student-athletes to return, but don't have anything to add at the moment. I expect we'll have more very soon, though, and can provide details after a plan is approved.”
Then there is the matter of when to start full-blOtherown football practices.
Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said he needed to start training camp six weeks prior to the first game in order for the team to be properly prepared. Under the original schedule that meant camp would have opened July 17. Now presumably the date can be pushed back a week or two.
As for the campus in general, UC President Janet Napolitano has said that “every campus will be open and offering instruction” this fall. The question will be how much of that instruction is in-person versus how much is done remotely.”
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