College football players recently unleashed from coronavirus quarantine might be permitted to interact with coaches at workouts as early as two days after the Fourth of July.
After spring practices were either truncated or canceled by covid-19, the NCAA Division I Oversight Committee is expected to vote June 17 on a six-week preseason practice plan, Sports Illustrated reported. If approved, practice would start July 6 for the 12 teams with openers scheduled for Aug. 29.
Schools with openers the following week, including Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia on Sept. 5, can begin July 13 with what the NCAA is calling “required summer athletic activities.” That includes eight hours per week of weight training, conditioning and film review (two hours). No footballs are permitted.
That 11-day period will precede “summer access” that would start July 24 and include one-hour walk-throughs per day with a football. Among the 20 allowable hours per week are as many as eight hours of weight training, conditioning and film review and up to one hour a day for meetings.
The traditional preseason practice period would start Aug. 7 with a five-day acclimatization period. When classes start, practice will be limited to four hours per day and 20 per week.
Pitt is starting classes Aug. 19, a week earlier than normal, in an attempt to end the semester before flu season and/or another covid-19 outbreak.
Get the latest news about Pitt football and all things Panthers athletics.
