Syracuse Football: NCAA committee finalizes proposed pre-season plan
By Neil Adler
Syracuse football and the rest of the sport will keep a keen eye on a pre-season model proposed by an NCAA committee.
As several dozen Syracuse football players returned to the Hill earlier this week for voluntary work-outs, NCAA officials are ironing out their pre-season plan for college football amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The NCAA announced that, after a couple of weeks discussing the matter and receiving feedback, the Division I Football Oversight Committee has finalized its recommendations for summer athletic activities and pre-season practices pertaining to the 2020 campaign.
Next Wednesday, the Division I Council will act on the proposed model, according to an NCAA press release.
Under the committee’s plan, assuming a team’s first scheduled game is on Saturday, Sept. 5, student-athletes may be required to participate in up to eight hours of weight training, conditioning and film review per week from July 13 to July 23.
The Orange, by the way, is slated to begin its 2020 stanza by traveling to Boston College on Friday, Sept. 4.
From July 24 until Aug. 6, student-athletes may be required to participate in up to 20 hours of “countable athletically related activities per week,” including weight training and conditioning, walk-throughs, which may include the use of a football, film review, team meetings, position meetings, and one-on-one meetings.
During this 14-day period, the statement says that student-athletes are required to get at least two days off.
The committee’s proposed model doesn’t make adjustments to the legislated 29-day pre-season practice period. The press release says that in the prior example, a squad’s pre-season practice period would begin on Aug. 7, with a five-day “acclimatization” period, followed by the opportunity for up to 25 on-field practices.
The ‘Cuse athletics department said a few days ago that about 65 Syracuse football players have returned to the SU campus for voluntary workouts and underwent testing for COVID-19 this past Tuesday morning.
In total, about 130 players, coaches, staff members and Department of Athletics personnel were tested at that time.