The NCAA’s football oversight committee has developed a 12-hour schedule model for teams not playing this fall that it recommended to the NCAA’s Division I council for approval on Tuesday.
West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons, the chair of the football oversight committee, told ESPN on Tuesday that the model includes time for strength and conditioning, meetings and five hours of on-field activities with helmets. Lyons said he expects the Council to approve the plan at its meeting Wednesday afternoon.
The model aims to provide some structure and continued practice time to several conferences that have decided to postpone their seasons to the spring in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, including the Big Ten, Pac-12, Mountain West and Mid-American.
Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour, who is on the NCAA’s football oversight committee, said Monday that the group is trying to figure out something that “won’t look exactly spring ball-ish, but it will be a hybrid as those football programs lead into what would be a spring semester season.”
“Let’s face it,” Barbour said, “whether we’re projecting to play in the fall or projecting to play in the spring, we’re all just projecting to play.”