NCAA Council Reportedly Approves Voluntary Activities For Football, Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball

UPDATE, May 20, 2020 at 6:47 PM: Per Boston College Athletics, a decision has not been made at this time regarding reopening campus for voluntary workouts.

A number of publications have reported that the NCAA Council approved voluntary activities for football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball from June 1 to June 30. The decision partially lifts a moratorium that has been in place since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily suspending all athletic activity. The Council reportedly will revisit the other sports covered by the sanctioning sometime in the next week.

The decision, as we mentioned yesterday, is not a beseeching but more so a granting of permission by the body. Member institutions all throughout the country will still be required to follow state and local officials, as well as their respective conferences.

For Boston College, it’s still unclear how the institution will react. My guess is that the University will look to the ACC for guidance. The ACC, as we mentioned yesterday, formed a COVID-19 task force with doctors representing each member institution. The ACC cancelled all athletic activities in 2019-2020, and the conference, as far as we can tell, still has an indefinite suspension on all athletic activity, so any resumption by BC, even with the blessing of commonwealth and local officials, still would have to comply with the ACC’s mandate.

With that said, the conference will likely be chomping at the bit to get workouts going. Syracuse Athletic Director John Wildhack was quoted in a Syracuse.com article saying that a mid-to-late June is a deadline for an on-time start to the football season.

In any event, the eyes are now on the ACC as to what to do next.