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Covid-19 and Buff Olympic sports

The NCAA D1 Board of Directors have voted, and looks like they've approved the Council recommendations regarding fall sports I noted in the last post above in this thread.

Link to release - https://www.ncaa.org/about/resource...proves-plan-holding-fall-championships-spring

Table in the release with info for the various sports -

"
...

ChampionshipReduced Bracket SizeAutomatic QualifiersAt LargeFirst PracticeFirst CompetitionSelectionsChampionship Dates
Men’s and women’s cross country255 per genderN/A255 per genderInstitutional discretionJan. 23March 6March 15
Field hockey12102Institutional discretionFeb. 12April 24May 7-9
Football16115Institutional discretionInstitutional discretionApril 18May 14-16 (exact date TBD)
Men’s soccer362412Institutional discretionFeb. 3April 18May 13-17
Women’s soccer483117Institutional discretionFeb. 3April 18May 13-17
Women’s volleyball483216Institutional discretionJan. 22April 4April 23-25
Men’s water polo660Institutional discretionJan. 16March 7March 19-21

"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As I noted in the last post, it sounds like cross country is the one fall sport that still might move around, even if other (pandemic related) factors don't come into play. Thestridereport put out an article discussing this.-



Direct link to article - https://www.thestridereport.com/pos...-championships-in-march-concerns-still-linger

"
The NCAA D1 Board of Directors announced earlier today that they have approved plans to hold fall championships in the spring. For cross country, this means that the NCAA XC Championships will be held on March 15th with the first official date of competition taking place on January 23rd.

However, based on a September 16th announcement from the NCAA, there is "some concern in the membership about conducting cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field in the spring term."

It is still unclear what additional steps may be needed in order for a winter cross country season to happen (if any) and there is still potential for Division I conferences to opt out of the 2021 winter cross country season.
...
"
 
As has already been noted in football and basketball threads, there have been major decisions by the Pac 12 today, although for the Olympic fall sports I assume the NCAA decisions I've posted about in the last couple posts give most of the "meaty" news for them.

As quoted below, as of now no fans will be allowed at any Pac 12 competitions, but the Pac 12 will be re-evaluating this in Jamuay. Hopefully things improve so that, with the fall sports not scheduled to start until January anyways, there's at least some hope we'll still get to root the Buffs on live and in person at Prentup and/ or the Event Center in the early months of 2021.

Taking things from the Pac 12 release (https://pac-12.com/article/2020/09/24/pac-12-announcement) and cubuffs article (https://cubuffs.com/news/2020/9/24/cu-pac-12-to-start-2020-football-season-on-nov-6.aspx), items related to the Olympic sports in them include-

Pac 12 release (I bolded parts related to Olympic sports if buried in a paragraph) -
"
SAN FRANCISCO - The Pac-12 CEO Group announced today that based upon updated Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee recommendations that take into account material changes to testing capabilities, the prevalence of COVID-19 and cardiac issues, along with updated state and local health official guidance, the Conference will resume its football, basketball and winter sport seasons. The football season may now commence for those teams that have the necessary state and local health approvals on November 6, men’s and women’s basketball on November 25 consistent with the NCAA’s official start date for these sports, and other winter sports consistent with the NCAA season dates for those sports. The decision follows a meeting of the CEO Group last week where the Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee presented its updated health and safety recommendations (available here), along with the CEO Group having reviewed details on the rollout of the previously announced Quidel daily rapid-results testing program.
...

No fans will be permitted at any sporting competition taking place on Pac-12 campuses. The decision to not allow fans at competitions will be revisited based upon health and safety considerations in January 2021.

...
Fall sports for which post-season championships were postponed by the NCAA until the spring will be conducted starting January 2021, with preparation and practice occurring during the fall as permitted by NCAA rules.

In all cases, competition with non-conference opponents will be contingent upon such non-conference opponents implementing minimum testing protocols in accordance with NCAA and Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee recommendations.
"

From the cubuffs.com article-

"
...

As a whole, the conference CEOs decided to proceed to hold games with no fans through the end of the year for both football and basketball. In addition, no bands or spirit squads will be permitted for time being as well. The conference will revisit for basketball and spring sports such as volleyball and soccer in January.
...

.... Daily testing for each day of athletic participation will be implemented for sports that entail higher risk of transmission activity. Competition with nonconference opponents will be contingent upon such non-conference opponents implementing minimum testing protocols in accordance with Pac 12 Medical Board recommendations.
"
 
Looks like, last Friday, the NCAA made some rulings/ clarification about what the rules are regarding transfers and early enrollee freshmen and spring semester transfers being able to play this spring in the traditionally fall and winter sports (should apply to volleyball, soccer and cross country at CU). (Per the NCAA release, this supersedes an earlier ruling that no mid-year arriving freshmen and transfers could participate in the fall sports' unusual spring seasons this academic year.)

Links -
(A) To topdrawersoccer article that 1st alerted me to this change/ clarification - https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/mid-year-transfers-to-play-in-2021_aid48676

(B) To NCAA release - https://www.ncaa.org/about/resource...i-council-adopts-midyear-enrollee-legislation
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

My understanding of the new rules (All quotes are from the NCAA released linked to above) :
  • Freshmen - "To qualify for spring competition, freshmen who enroll at midyear must have graduated in the spring or summer of 2020 and made a written commitment to a school indicating intent to enroll in the fall 2020 term. " (Or, as I interpret it, they're only going to allow those freshmen to play who would have probably played this fall, but decided not even to go to college this semester due to the pandemic.)

  • Transfers:
    • "If a transfer engaged in competition in the fall or winter term of 2020, the student-athlete is not eligible to compete at the new school in spring 2021." (So, student athletes who have been competing this fall (in conferences such as the SEC, ACC or Big 12) can't transfer to a new school next semester and compete immediately. Therefore, other transfers who did NOT compete this fall CAN play in the spring.?.)
    • One exception to that for grad-school transfers - "Additionally, fall sport student-athletes who graduate in the fall term of 2020 are not eligible to compete in spring 2021."
 
A few things;

As I already noted in the football thread, sounds like there's a good chance the NCAA (at least the football side) will vote next week to extend the recruiting dead period (for coaches and recruits physically meeting, official recruit visits to campuses, etc.) from January 1 to April 15th, 2021. Although the article I'm linking to is specifically covering football, I'd GUESS (???) that extension or something similar will also be addressed soon by all the other NCAA sports. (article - https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...g-coaches-away-from-recruits-for-over-a-year/ )
______________________________________________________________________________________

And, my impression is the Ivy League is often going their own way. Hope this doesn't become required for the whole NCAA (please socially distance, wear masks, don't go anywhere, especially inside, where other folk outside your household are if you don't need to, etc.), but looks like they've cancelled all winter sport seasons for the coming year.



_____________________________________________________________________________________

Also, I can't vouch for it one way or the other, but for those interested in learning some things that both high school seniors this year and current college student-athletes are facing in these pandemic times, here's an article by volleyballmag.com - https://volleyballmag.com/volleyball-recruiting-dilemma-111320/
(As the article's website name indicates, this is concentrating on Volleyball, but assume (???) it will more or less apply to most every sport.)
 
As looked likely (see my last post above), the dead period has now officially been moved out through April 15th, 2021.

 
Last edited:
Hopefully not a trend- the Big West Conference cancelled its volleyball, cross country, and soccer seasons a couple days ago. All 3 are, of course, fall sports that the NCAA postponed, and are now scheduled to start, I believe, in mid to late January.



Direct link to article - https://volleyballmag.com/big-west-cancels-volleyball-121120/

"
An NCAA volleyball tournament without Hawai’i became a harsh reality Thursday when the Big West Conference announced it has canceled not only volleyball, but also the 2021 spring cross country and soccer seasons.

That makes two of the 32 NCAA Division I conferences that sponsor volleyball out for the spring. Earlier, the Ivy League, which also gets an automatic bid to the tournament, said it won’t have sports in the 2020-21 school year.
...
"
 
This had already been noted in a couple basketball threads, but wanted to note in an Olympic Sport thread that the NCAA has put a rule in where all 1st time transfers who were full-time students this (fall) semester are AUTOMATICALLY eligible to play immediately (whenever the season starts). (I believe Past/ normal policy was that the NCAA had to grant a student-athlete an individual waiver. The articles I'd seen before seemed to zoom in on basketball, but the NCAA release linked to below indicate it's for ALL sports.)



Direct link to release - https://www.ncaa.org/about/resource...transfer-student-athletes-compete-immediately

"
The Division I Council granted a blanket waiver allowing all transfer student-athletes to compete immediately this season if specific criteria are met.

In order to be eligible for the waiver, the transfer student-athletes must meet the following conditions:

  • They must be enrolled full time at the school for the fall 2020 term.
  • It must be the first transfer from a four-year school.
  • The student-athlete must have left their previous school in good standing academically and not facing disciplinary suspension.
  • Both the head coach and the student-athlete must certify that impermissible recruiting did not take place.
The waiver applies only to students who transferred from another Division I school, not transfers from other NCAA divisions or schools outside the NCAA. The regular transfer waiver process is available to non-Division I transfer student-athletes.
...
"
_______________________________________________________________
 
Given how badly we're handling the virus, no surprise of course, but wanted to mention the Pac 12 issued a formal release yesterday that, on Dec. 23rd, the prohibition from general*** fans being able to view any competitions live on-site had been extended beyond the original January 1st date (see post #32 above). It didn't give a revised date for general fan attendance, but said the prohibition is in force "until further notice".
***Re family members of student-athletes being able to attend, the conference did say-
"Student-athlete families will continue be permitted to attend sport competitions if and to the extent allowed by local public health and campus authorities and in accordance with NCAA guidelines. Each Pac-12 member school will determine its family member attendance policies on these bases."

Full Pac 12 release - https://pac-12.com/article/2021/01/11/pac-12-extends-prohibition-fan-attendance-sports-competitions
 
I
AztecBuff said:
Given how badly we're handling the virus, no surprise of course, but wanted to mention the Pac 12 issued a formal release yesterday that, on Dec. 23rd, the prohibition from general*** fans being able to view any competitions live on-site had been extended beyond the original January 1st date (see post #32 above). It didn't give a revised date for general fan attendance, but said the prohibition is in force "until further notice".
***Re family members of student-athletes being able to attend, the conference did say-
"Student-athlete families will continue be permitted to attend sport competitions if and to the extent allowed by local public health and campus authorities and in accordance with NCAA guidelines. Each Pac-12 member school will determine its family member attendance policies on these bases."

Full Pac 12 release - https://pac-12.com/article/2021/01/11/pac-12-extends-prohibition-fan-attendance-sports-competitions
Click to expand...
I fully support taking reasonable steps to mitigate the virus. I've yet to hear a good explanation why going to "no fans" is necessary instead of just capping capacity at 25% (or 50% or whatever the number is that still allows for distancing).
 
Of course everything with the virus is week to week, so flexibility is key, but if it does seem safe, hope the reduction of scope in the NCAA Championships this season, for at minimum the 3 Olympic Sports I know about, is re-evaluated (assuming the coaches and student-athletes of the sport don't agree with the reductions).

As I'm sure was noted earlier in this thread, there was a dictate/ suggestion from the NCAA last year for the Olympic sports it more closely manages (believe football and both basketballs are handled somewhat separately) that championships be paired down, with I believe 25% used as a benchmark. I assumed based on this:
  • The current plans are for both the soccer and volleyball NCAA Championship tournaments to each only have 48 teams this season participating vs. the normal 64 and
  • as I recently noted in the outdoor track and field news thread, it was announced last week that only the top 32 accepted entries for each event will be going to this season's NCAA Outdoor track and field preliminary championships vs. the normal 48.
Anyways, per https://www.klin.com/2021/03/23/coo...py-with-ncaa-tournament-dropping-to-48-teams/ (thanks to a Volleytalk thread for the link), at least some senior volleyball coaches look to be lobbying to get this year's tourney back to the normal 64 team field. (Like for both basketball tourneys, it's been announced that this season's volleyball championships will be held in a bubble (in their case in Omaha).)

"
"Ridiculous”

That’s the sentiment from Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook on the NCAA Volleyball Tournament being reduced to 48 teams for this spring. Cook was asked about the change after both his predecessor and a conference peer tweeted their disappointment in the reduction.

“Basketball didn’t cut back,” Cook said. “Why are we cutting back? Football didn’t cut back. Why are we cutting back?

“You’re really looking at 16 more teams and its all gonna be in one place anyway so they can make that adjustment.”

Cook’s predecessor Terry Pettit tweeted Sunday that the decision to cut down the tournament was before they decided on a single-site for the event. Pettit says there is still time to return the field to a full 64 teams.

“Volleyball is the most participated in women’s team sport,” Pettit said. “Showcase women with 64 teams. There is still time to do it.”
...
"
 
Also, seeing some posts in the football recruiting forum about student-athletes starting to announce they have official visits planned in June, and I was curious to see what was up in the Olympic sports which, I believe like football and basketball, currently aren't allowing any visits through May 31st.

I found this NCAA release from last week - https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/di-council-discusses-return-recruiting
(In general, sounds like they'll be voting next month on what it wants to do, but things could get opened up some June 1st.)

"
The Division I Council launched a discussion of a return to some recruiting activities, and the group intends to vote on a return to recruiting during its April meeting. Division I has been in a recruiting dead period since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

In February, the Council extended the dead period through May 31 but committed to providing clarity regarding the transition to recruiting activities during its April meeting.

Members generally supported transitioning back to some in-person recruiting in all sports on June 1, acknowledging that schools in different parts of the country may be subject to different health and safety restrictions.

Council members discussed several possible models, including one that would return all sports to their regular recruiting calendars on June 1 and a more uniform model for all sports that would allow the return of certain recruiting activities like official and unofficial visits beginning June 1, with a return to the regular calendar for all sports on Aug. 1.

“The return-to-recruiting discussion is an extremely complex one. We had a lengthy discussion today, weighing the feedback from standing committees, as well as the wealth of feedback we’ve received from all stakeholders,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania. “We will continue to assess the impact on each sport as we work toward final decisions in April.”
...
"
 
Just in case the reference becomes helpful, here are some changes for this season the NCAA Competition Committee made ~10 days ago regarding things such as what happens if a team selected to an NCAA tourney ends up having to bow out to Covid-19, etc..

Note- the one thing I already noted in the track and field thread that will almost certainly affect at least one or two T & F Buffs is that the NCAA is only going to invite the top 32 accepted athletes for each individual event to the 2 (West and East) preliminaries this year as opposed to the normal 48. (The top 24 accepted relay teams will still be invited as normal.)

Note 2- The Buff team now looks like it will have to rally to make it matter to them (especially with the tourney this season only being 48 teams vs. the normal 64), but this announcement also notes that both the men's and women's soccer tourney matches this season are all going to be held in North Carolina.



Direct link - https://www.ncaa.org/about/resource...ersight-committee-approves-replacement-policy
 
I had already posted a tweet last week that the tennis team had become the 1st Buff team to have all received a vaccination. Looks like progress is contining to be made in other (I assume all) sports.

 
Wanted to note here that, a couple days ago:
  • the NCAA Council officially opened up "normal" recruiting (including allowing on-campus visits) effective June 1st, with some additional provisions that sound to me like they're trying to give coaching staffs some modified rules this year so they can try to "catch up" with recruit contacts.
  • Also the Council "advised the student-athlete reinstatement staff to provide additional flexibility for potential season-of-competition waivers for spring sport student-athletes. "
(Assume this may have already been noted in the football thread, but there are also quite a few football-specific rules set up in this announcement.)



Full release - https://www.ncaa.org/about/resource...ivision-i-return-recruiting-activities-june-1

"
All Division I sports will return to their regular recruiting calendars beginning June 1. The Division I Council approved the return to recruiting activities during its videoconference this week.

Council members also acknowledged that schools in different areas of the country could be limited based on campus, local and state requirements.

“We are delighted to announce that as of June 1, all sports will return to their normal recruiting calendars,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania. “We want to thank all prospective student-athletes, their families, coaches and current student-athletes for their patience as we determined the best way to move forward safely with recruiting in Division I.”
...

Council members also granted a waiver to allow school staff to participate in a call with any number of uncommitted prospective student-athletes in any sport and to allow student-athletes to participate in phone calls with a coach and prospective student-athletes or at the direction of a coach. Additionally, student-athletes cannot be directed to make calls on a day off.

The Council also approved a blanket waiver allowing full-time institutional staff members, current students and all coaches, including volunteer coaches, to initiate recruiting calls (for example, telephone calls, video calls) involving prospective student-athletes whom an institution is permitted to call. The waiver is in effect from June 1 through Dec. 31, 2021, and requires staff who are not making or receiving calls to prospects under an existing legislated exception (for example, academic advisors and compliance administrators) to pass the recruiting exam before making or receiving calls.

Division I has been in a recruiting dead period since March 13, 2020, when the Council decided the dead period was the best way to protect the health and safety of coaches and current and future student-athletes. The dead period has been extended multiple times, until discussions began about lifting the ban on in-person recruiting earlier this year.
...

COVID-19 action​

At the recommendation of the Legislative Committee, the Council advised the student-athlete reinstatement staff to provide additional flexibility for potential season-of-competition waivers for spring sport student-athletes. Staff will be flexible when considering when competition took place, how many dates of competition a student participated in and the overall circumstances of waiver requests.
...
"
 
As I noted most recently in post #43 above, track and field's NCAA regionals had been modified this season so that only 32 competitors per region were going to be selected for each individual single event rather than the normal 48. Now, per the below tweet from the Coaches' Association, looks like they may have decided to change course and allow the normal 48 to compete.

In what also sounds like a change (although I haven't looked into what has happened in prior years and what was originally planned for this season), regionals are going to be held over 4 days per another tweet pasted below. (The Buff schedule currently has regionals at only 3 days (May 27-29).)



 
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