FAYETTEVILLE -- Barring a last-minute reversal from the NCAA, college football programs can begin full-team walkthroughs today.
What is part of the "enhanced summer activities" on the NCAA calendar amounts to non-padded rehearsals of plays and schemes -- with a football.
For the University of Arkansas, this will be the first time Coach Sam Pittman and his staff will see players interact with a football on the practice fields. The Razorbacks and many other teams had their 15 spring practices wiped out by the covid-19 pandemic. Arkansas was slated to start its spring drills March 16, the Monday after the virus forced a virtually global shutdown of sports.
Arkansas coaches and staff members will be wearing masks for the workouts, a UA spokesperson confirmed Thursday.
NCAA teams will be allowed 20 hours per week of walkthroughs, film study, weight work and conditioning, as long as they don't exceed four hours per day.
That schedule will hold -- again, barring changes induced by anti-virus measures -- through Aug. 7 for the Razorbacks with the planned opening for fall camp.
Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in separate interviews recently that the next week or so will be critical in determining what direction the college football season takes.
"The milestone check next week is are we ready to move into that stage of practice?" Sankey said in an interview with ESPN on Tuesday. "Part of that will be a conversation about what a season will look like. That's a conversation that has been taking place for weeks."
Yurachek mentioned today's start of walkthroughs in an appearance on the SEC Network on Monday.
"We want to really see how that plays out on the football field, as our coaches can more engage with those student-athletes and spend more time with them," Yurachek said.
"There's some more across the line of scrimmage interaction -- obviously no one's in pads -- going on there and things of that nature. What does that look like? It also gives us some time.
"As I watched some Major League Baseball games on TV last night, as I watched golf tournaments, as the NBA starts their season later this week, [we want] to see how those things develop and kind of flesh themselves out as the professional sports teams continue to come forward and start playing again."
Sankey and SEC officials would like to wait until late next week before announcing any definitive plans for the football season. The SEC, Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences have not announced any changes to the current 12-game schedules, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences have announced they are planning for conference-only schedules.
SEC presidents and chancellors are scheduled to convene next week to discuss the viability for fall sports, headlined by football, and potential alternatives to a 12-game schedule.
One of the options, per Auburn insider Charles Goldberg, is delaying the start of the season until October.
The SEC would like, if a 12-game schedule is deemed untenable, to preserve their entire conference schedule and at least one non-conference game. SEC East teams Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have marquee nonconference games against ACC opponents Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson, while Arkansas has its first-ever game against Notre Dame, a scheduling partner with the ACC, currently set for Sept. 12.
Alabama lost its marquee season opener against Southern California on Sept. 5 after the Pac-12 announced its league-only intentions. Texas A&M lost a home game against Colorado, also of the Pac-12, on Sept. 19. Because of that, the Aggies are trying to induce Arkansas to play their game scheduled for Sept. 26 in College Station, Texas, rather than at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, as their contract dictates.
The SEC office might be the final arbiter on that proposal, and Yurachek has said he would only do it if the Razorbacks get a home game against the Aggies in 2021. The schools, who agreed to a home-and-home swap in 2012 and 2013, are scheduled to play in Arlington, Texas, through 2024.