- Aggie Athletics
Q: Have you contacted any, any other athletic directors to make contingency plans about, in case one of the things on your schedule, can't play maybe filling it with somebody else.
A: So here, here's the deal on that I've talked to, so we know the sort of the flash points. Last week was the state of California and the PAC 12.
And I talked to both athletic directors at Fresno State and the University of Colorado and their comments were were coming to Kyle Field count on us being there so they plan on playing.
Now what happens is, I wouldn't say contingency plans, but I probably talked to 10 to 20 athletic directors a week, or text, depending on you know the timing of those conversations or text messages so we all kind of are aware of all the moving parts.
But there's nothing that you can really put in in writing or have a backup plan yet because there's just too much uncertainty it's way too early. But we're monitoring, right, the landscape of college football monitoring fall sports and all those things.
We see the news, just like you all do but nothing has been put in place. And we're just going to stay in dialogue, you know, with my with my fellow colleagues.
Q: what is the outlook on on soccer and volleyball?
A: Yeah, it seems like you know we're all focused on on football that's where the attention has drawn to, and we keep forgetting that oh by the way we have three other fall sports cross country, volleyball and soccer. They check in about the same time as football in terms of training camp. However, we have early exhibition games, pretty much the middle of August I can't remember the exact date but it's set 17th or 18th of August.
I believe is our first soccer exhibition game. And same thing would apply the same type of timeframes would apply to those sports.
And so we're looking at this holistically, with all of our sports, especially the fall sports that if there is a return to activity if we could allow our weight rooms to be open June first and that's still to be determined. We will look at this for all of our athletic teams but with particular focus on those those fall sports so that's how we're approaching it, and we're keeping our all of our coaches involved and included in the conversations.
Q: Do you have a timetable for bringing athletes back to campus and what would that first step be?
A: Right now, we're prohibited through the SEC from any activity until May 31. And so the question is what happens on June 1. We don't have that clarity yet there's ongoing conversations, we actually have an athletic director meeting here today at at 130 and there'll be continued dialogue. We're hopeful that we can bring them back. And I say that the term bring them back is a little bit of a misnomer because really what we're talking about is opening up our facilities so that if they choose to come back they can come back. Bringing them back i think is a much stronger term because that makes it seem like we're requiring them to come back--what we're talking about here is voluntary activity.
Because our state has opened up commercial fitness centers our university opened up the Campus Rec Center.
Yesterday at 10am. So we want to open up our facilities. So bringing them back I I'm guilty of that too by using that term it's really about allowing them for voluntary activity, and we have a plan in place.
We're ready to engage in that plan. Once were given an all clear through the SEC, and we're just having those on ongoing dialogue, as we speak.
Q: Do you guys have a preference? We've heard different dates, June 1, June 15, early July, and we're just wondering when the SEC gets around to make a decision? --- Also did you have any reaction to the comments from Lincoln Riley last week about players back too soon?
A: None of us are doctors, none of us are medical experts--we have to follow their guidance. The guidance that we're getting is that it will be safe to bring back athletes-- it'll be safe to operate our facilities. We can really operate in a manner where we can protect our student athletes inside of our facilities, more so than we believe, being out in the community.
So that that's my comment related to what Coach Riley said-- we believe that it's safe to bring them back. And so my position is, now that our state is open, my stance is that June 1 should be the date.