NCAA offers guidance for bringing athletes back to campus

The NCAA released a long and detailed plan Friday to help schools bring back athletes to campus during a pandemic.

While schools will need to have testing and surveillance plans in place, the guidance does not recommend testing all athletes upon arrival for COVID-19.

“There’s not a universal, easy fit guidance like that,” said Dr. Brian Hainline, the chief medical officer for the NCAA. “Even when we speak with epidemiologist who are doing mathematical modeling and so forth, we just aren’t there yet.”

The Resocialization of Collegiate Sports: Action Plan Considerations was announced as schools across the country prepare for the return of football players as early as next week. Hainline said the latest guidance was a more granular follow-up to the three-phase recommendations handed down May 1.

The NCAA’s Division I Council voted last week to lift a moratorium on athletic activities starting Monday. That cleared the way for voluntary workouts and training to begin at team facilities.

Schools have already started putting plans in place to test athletes, coaches and staff for coronavirus and implement social distancing. The NCAA says its plan is offered as guidance, consistent with federal and local public health guidelines.

Shortly before the NCAA released its guidelines, the University of North Carolina posted on social media its plan to bring athletes back to campus. North Carolina said it plans to test all returning football and basketball players and try to have players congregate in small groups.

“We will encourage all of the players to stay in their bubble and not be out with people that haven’t been tested, because it’s really important that we all go by this protocol,” North Carolina coach Mack Brown said.

Last week, Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said the school’s first wave of returning athletes will go through “very robust” physical examinations and screening, but only those who are symptomatic will be given a coronavirus test.

Hainline said the NCAA’s COVID-19 Advisory Panel could not take a one-size fits all approach with its recommendations with more than 1,100 member all over the country.