NCAA votes to allow voluntary workouts on campus starting June 1
While no one can say for sure when college football or basketball seasons will begin in 2020-21 because of the coronavirus pandemic, some athletes will soon be allowed to begin preparing for their seasons.
The NCAA’s Division I Council on Wednesday approved voluntary workouts on campuses beginning June 1 for football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball athletes. Such activities previously were banned by a moratorium that extended through May 31.
The NCAA decision, first reported by Yahoo Sports, said the voluntary workouts must be in accord with any health and safety restrictions made by state and local governments, and by the individual universities and their conferences. North Carolina, for example, will allow outside gatherings of no more than 25 people in Phase 2 of its reopening that will run through June 26. -- a decision announced Wednesday by Gov. Roy Cooper.
The council also will consider allowing voluntary workouts in other sports and that a decision could be voted on within a week.
“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,” Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania, 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.”
Because of the rapid spread of the novel virus, the ACC in March canceled all athletic activities through the end of the 2019-20 academic year and there have been questions about the fate of college sports in 2020-21 if students were not allowed on campus this fall because of concerns caused by the pandemic.
N.C. State chancellor Randy Woodson has announced NCSU expects a “normal fall opening.” The 17 UNC system schools will develop and execute their own plans for reopening this fall, UNC president Bill Roper said Wednesday.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 5:15 PM with the headline "NCAA votes to allow voluntary workouts on campus starting June 1."
