NCAA Releases Plan to Bring Athletes to Campus During Coronavirus Pandemic

The NCAA has issued a detailed plan designed to help schools bring student-athletes back to campus during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Resocialization of Collegiate Sport: Action Plan Considerations is "offered as guidance, consistent with federal and local public health guidelines" as several schools around the country are preparing to allow football players on campus as soon as June 8, per the Associated Press (via ESPN). 

The NCAA plan includes nine core priniciples and three phases. 

The principles note that resocialization plans must be in place at state and local levels, as well as at universities. It also states there "must not be directives at the national level that preclude resocialization."

Phase One states that "gating criteria have been satisfied for a minimum of 14 days" and any immunocompromised student-athletes, athletics healthcare providers, coaches and other personnel should continue to quarantine. 

Assuming all the tenets of Phase One are met, the second phase notes gyms and common areas where student-athletes might congregate should remain closed or implement social distancing and sanitation protocols. 

If the tenets of the first two phases are met, Phase Three allows for immunocompromised student-athletes, athletics healthcare providers, coaches and other personnel to resume in-person interactions, while continuing to "practice physical distancing, minimizing exposure to settings where such distancing is not practical."

The NCAA announced last week that student-athletes in all sports can return to their campus for voluntary workouts starting on June 1. 

All remaining winter and spring sports championship events were canceled on March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic.