Exactly a month after announcing that it would be halting its reentry plan, Arizona has decided that it will restart the process of bringing athletes back to campus beginning next Monday with football newcomers. The program originally decided to halt its reentry plan, which began on June 15, after only two weeks out of an abundance of caution with COVID-19 cases on the rise in Pima County.
The Wildcats were able to get 83 football players on campus before hitting the pause button on the process June 29. Since that time athletes have continued to go through voluntary workouts and there have only been three positive tests since the reentry plan started.
The beginning of the fall semester is set for Aug. 24 and after that recent announcement by UA's president, Robert C. Robbins, the decision was made to move ahead and resume the process of bringing athletes back to campus starting Aug. 3.
“Our decision to resume our re-entry process for student-athletes was made after consultations with President Robbins, University leadership, the University of Arizona Re-Entry Task Force as well as our Re-Entry Advisory Group of campus and community medical experts,” UA athletic director Dave Heeke said in a statement provided by the athletic department. “Our comprehensive and phased approach centers around safety, health and wellbeing as we continue to follow the guidance of campus and community partners.
"The safe and healthy return of student-athletes has been the focus of all decision making throughout this process, and it will continue to guide us moving forward.”
UA says there have been no more positive test results after its announcement two weeks ago when it was made known that three athletes had tested positive out of 366 test-encounters as part of the COVID-19 protocol.
The university is planning to move ahead with in-person learning during the fall semester, but up until now the athlete population on campus has been limited to football players. The restart of the reentry plan will allow athletes from other sports to begin returning soon as well.
Originally, the plan called for all athletes to return to campus by Aug. 3 – the same day UA had been scheduled to open football training camp.
The Pac-12 is moving to a conference-only schedule for fall sports with a football schedule expected to be finalized by the end of the week. Camp is now likely to begin in the middle of August. Michigan State and Rutgers are two programs that have had to halt voluntary workouts after a surge in positive coronavirus cases, but UA has had more success.
Workouts will continue to be voluntary for the time being and the Pac-12 recently said that any athlete who wants to sit out the upcoming season for safety reasons relating to COVID-19 will have their scholarship honored.
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