California state teams make plans for football season even if learning remains virtual

The California State University system’s plan for a mostly virtual fall semester due to the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t necessarily close the door on football at its three schools that play in the far-flung Mountain West Conference.

San Diego State is looking at having football players return to campus no earlier than July 7 and is making plans to play the season as scheduled, athletic director John David Wicker said.

SDSU is proceeding because it envisions a fall schedule that includes a hybrid model of classes, in which some students will be on campus for inperson instruction such as labs while other classes will be held online.

NCAA President Mark Emmert said recently that campuses must be open “in one fashion or another” in order to have sports this fall.

Wicker said SDSU had been planning for a hybrid model, no matter what, and feels that CSU Chancellor Timothy White’s announcement was misconstrued by some people who thought fall sports would be canceled.

“We’re going to have students on campus,” Wicker said.

July 7 is the target date for bringing back football players because it is the start of the second summer session.

SDSU is scheduled to open the season at home against FCS Sacramento State on Sept. 5.

“We’re going to plan that we are going to play our football opener as scheduled,” Wicker said. “I don’t think anyone will be able to answer that question with 100% certainty, but we’re going to plan.”

SDSU has assembled a task force to figure out how it could house and feed athletes while meeting all safety parameters, with the hope of having a plan by the end of this month.

The school also has begun looking at how it could safely host fans within social distancing guidelines, if fans will be allowed to attend games at 70,000-seat SDCCU Stadium. He mentioned the Miami Dolphins are making plans to allow perhaps 15,000 fans at 65,000-seat Hard Rock Stadium, if fans are allowed to attend NFL games.

Wicker and his counterpart at Mountain West rival Fresno State, Terry Tumey, say every school in the country has to plan for what it thinks it can do in the fall.

“No one knows for sure what the fall will hold,” Wicker said. “We have to make the best fact-based decisions we can. Every FBS school will have to try to figure out, ’When can I bring students back, when can we start training, when can we start contact, when can we actually play games, when can we have fans in the stadium?”

The Mountain West includes 12 schools in eight states. The league’s third California school, San Jose State, said in a statement that it continues to work on timelines.

“It’s going to be quite the chess match as we move through this,” Wicker said.