Most NCAA Power 5 colleges plan to reopen, the first step for football amid pandemic
An abundance of caution comes first for the California State University system, whose students across 23 campus will take the vast majority of their 2020 fall semester classes online.
The University of California schools are expected to follow suit, though they haven’t officially decided to do so amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Two of those UC schools are in the Pac-12 Conference, which is considering playing only conference football games to minimize travel and keep players safe if they even decide to play.
The NCAA isn’t going to set a deadline for sports to resume, president Mark Emmert told ESPN on Wednesday. That, he said, ultimately will be up to local and state governments.
Emmert also addressed the impact closed campuses would have on sports last week during a streamed interview. “If a school doesn’t reopen, then they’re not going to be playing sports. It’s really that simple,” he said.
So, that’s why there’s all the talk of TCU, which is scheduled to open its 2020 season Sept. 5 at California, playing Alabama that day instead at AT&T Stadium. Alabama is scheduled to play USC, a private college, in the Advocare Classic.
TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday nothing has changed based on conversations with his counterpart at Cal, Jim Knowlton. “He and I spoke again today and he remained confident that we could play the game Sept. 5 at Cal,” Donati said. “So, unless we hear otherwise, our plan is to be there for Week 1.”
TCU and the other nine Big 12 schools are planning to hold in-person classes for the fall semester, and so are most schools in the other four Power 5 conferences. That includes the Pac-12.
Only 16 of the 62 schools in Power 5 conference haven’t made their decisions on reopening official, based on a list compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education and Star-Telegram research.
The Cal and UCLA campuses are expected to have minimal in-person studies, and USC is among 14 others searching for the best plan to open their campuses safely.
Some are opening in phases. Some will offer both in-person and online classes. Some will wait as late as July before deciding on how they will hold fall classes.
Even if there are in-person classes and fall sports, namely football, things won’t be going back to normal. Football will likely be played in empty stadiums.
“There may be some things we simply cannot do in the fall,” Wisconsin chancellor Rebecca Blank told professors in April. “It is quite possible that 80,000 people cannot gather in Camp Randall [Stadium].”
Power 5 conferences reopening plans
Big 12
TCU: planning to open
Baylor: planning to open
Iowa State: planning to open
Kansas: planning to open
Kansas State: planning to open
Oklahoma: planning to open
Oklahoma State: planning to open
Texas: planning to open
Texas Tech: planning to open
West Virginia: planning to open
ACC
Boston College: exploring options
Clemson: planning to open
Duke: exploring options
Florida State: planning to open
Georgia Tech: planning to open
Louisville: planning to open
Miami: planning to open
North Carolina: planning to open
N.C. State: planning to open
Pittsburgh: exploring options
Syracuse: exploring options
Virginia: exploring options
Virginia Tech: exploring options
Wake Forest: planning to open
Big Ten
Illinois: planning to open
Indiana: planning to open
Maryland: planning to open
Michigan: planning to open
Michigan State: exploring options
Minnesota: exploring options
Nebraska: planning to open
Ohio State: planning to open
Penn State: exploring options
Purdue: planning to open
Rutgers: exploring options
Wisconsin: decision expected in July
Pac-12
Arizona: planning to open
Arizona State: planning to open
Cal: expecting limited opening
Colorado: planning to open/hybrid
Oregon: planning to open
Oregon State: planning to open
Stanford: exploring options
UCLA: expecting limited opening
USC: decision expected in June
Utah: planning to open
Washington: planning to open
Washington State: planning to open
SEC
Alabama: planning to open
Arkansas: planning to open
Auburn: planning to open
Florida: decision expected in July
Georgia: planning to open
Kentucky: planning to open
LSU: planning to open
Mississippi: planning to open
Mississippi State: planning to open
Missouri: planning to open
South Carolina: planning to open
Tennessee: planning to open
Texas A&M: planning to open
Vanderbilt: planning to open
This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
