Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke spoke with the local media Thursday and if everything goes according to plan there will be college football this fall. He did admit that there are still numerous options for what it could look like, but he is confident that sports will return and players will be allowed to take the field once school resumes in Tucson.
"It couldn't be more clear that our intention all along is that we're gonna play football and we're going to have an opportunity for fans to take part in that in some way,” he said. “It may be a modified approach to fans.”
Heeke acknowledged that those plans could change and pointed to the reopening of parts of the country as being something officials at UA will have their eyes on to aid in their own decisions about a reentry plan for athletes at Arizona, but based on what the information he has right now the Wildcats are planning to be on the field later this year.
"We're focused on what we can control and that's planning towards a reentry of our staff and our student-athletes, and our full intention is to have competition in the fall for football," he said. "So, we are taking those steps to bring our players back for when that happens, and to be able to train and be out and prepared for a college football season.
"None of us know what a college football season will entail at this point. ... We're focused on trying to preserve a complete season of football or as many games as possible. That's critical to the overall economic health of not only the University of Arizona but all of college athletics at the Power Five level."
Heeke continues to point to June 1 as the day when the picture will become clearer and more concrete plans can be put into place with one of the first steps being getting players back on campus to begin training for the upcoming season.
UA was only able to have four practices during the spring before the COVID-19 outbreak shuttered college sports forcing the Wildcats to have to cancel the remainder of its practice schedule. Most players returned home shortly after that as they continued to attend school virtually and finish the spring semester remotely.
Heeke said football players will need six weeks of preparation before they will be ready to hit the field for a game once they are allowed to return to campus.
At this point it remains unclear when that will be and the bigger picture is even more murky considering the current plan is for the Pac-12 to remain united in its return to the field. Arizona has already started to relax some of its restrictions that have been in place over the last several weeks while other states have been slower to do so leaving some uncertainty about when teams in other parts of the country will be able to get back on the field to begin preparing for the football season.
However, Heeke said at this point there is no plan to begin the season without having all Pac-12 teams on the same page and timeline.
"I don't like to really go down that road to too many hypotheticals," he said. "We continue as a conference to be very aligned that all of our members would play football together. That we would continue to have a Pac-12 season. ... We have not talked about that type of a modified season in that way."
Heeke said the athletic department will continue to listen to and take the advice of health officials when it comes to any decisions about the upcoming season, but he feels confident that football will return – even if modified – this year.
“I try to be realistic and optimistic,” he said. “ ... I believe that there will be athletics in some fashion as we come towards the fall, and believe in some way that we’re going to have some of that with the information that I have now. Again, each day and each week things can change.
“I think a big test in this is rollouts throughout the country ... and what the result of that is. Are there changes? Are there more cases? ... I am optimistic that we will play football, we’ll play college sports in the fall. Hope, I’m right.”
