One step closer to football. The NCAA took a major step forward in the process of getting college football players back on the field Thursday as the D1 Football Oversight Committee came to a final decision in its recommendation for a return to practice and preseason training that will now be presented to the Division I Council next week for final approval.

It took several weeks for the committee to come to a final decision for its model that will require players to participate in up to eight hours of weight training, conditioning and film review per week for a 10-day period in July that will begin July 13 and run through July 23 for teams whose season opener is scheduled for Sept. 5.

“This is the culmination of a significant amount of collaboration in our effort to find the best solution for Division I football institutions,” Shane Lyons, chair of the committee and director of athletics at West Virginia, said in a statement released by the NCAA. “Our student-athletes, conference commissioners, coaches and health and safety professionals helped mold the model we are proposing.”

From July 24-Aug. 6, teams will be allowed to have 20 hours per week of athletic-related activities with not more than four hours of work per day. The 20 hours will be divided up to give teams eight hours for weight training, six hours dedicated to walk-throughs that can include a football and six hours for meetings that may include film review, team meetings, position meetings and one-on-one meetings.

Players will be required to have two days off during that two-week span.

After that period teams can move into preparations for the season with a traditional training camp leading up to the first game of the season.

There are, however, a number of teams that will play during Week Zero meaning those teams will have the opportunity to move all the above dates up by a week to accommodate the programs that are in that position such as Arizona, which has a meeting with Hawaii scheduled for Aug. 29 at Arizona Stadium in Tucson.

“Given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across the country, we believe this model provides institutions and their student-athletes flexibility to prepare for the upcoming season,” Lyons said.

Thursday morning Arizona Athletics released a plan that will have the Wildcats ready to begin regular training camp practices on Aug. 3 under a phased reentry approach scheduled to begin Monday with voluntary workouts for 20 players. The program will bring in more players every week

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