NCAA Division I Athletes Can Start Voluntary Activities on June 1

The NCAA Division I council voted to permit Division I student-athletes in all sports to participate in voluntary athletics activities beginning June 1, including swimming as long as local, state and federal COVID-19 protocols are followed.

The vote of the Division I Council occurred electronically this week.

The current waiver allowing for eight hours of required virtual nonphysical activities in all sports also was extended. The Council voted earlier in the week to allow the same for football and basketball student-athletes.

“The return of voluntary activity in addition to the extension of the waiver to allow virtual, nonphysical activity shows sensitivity to local, state and regional differences in how Division I campuses are reopening,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania, in a statement. “We will continue to be considerate of these differences with wise and flexible administration of our regulations, and we expect schools to keep the well-being of student-athletes as a priority.”

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There were other measures voted on by the NCAA Division I Council that focus on other sports.

Additionally, countable required athletics activities will be prohibited through June 30 for all basketball and football student-athletes.

Schools will, however, be permitted to provide football student-athletes with funds equal to what they would receive to cover meals, lodging and expenses (other than tuition/fees and books) through a summer athletics scholarship.

The Football Bowl Subdivision members of the Council also decided that FBS schools cannot host football camps and clinics during the summer of 2020 and FBS coaches (including graduate assistants) are prohibited from working at football camps and clinics held at other four-year NCAA schools in 2020.

Football Championship Subdivision members of the Council did not support the ban on camps and clinics or coaches working at them. The recruiting dead period in place through June 30 prohibits football camps and clinics in any subdivision. If the recruiting dead period is extended again, camps and clinics will continue to be prohibited.

The Council will continue to consider the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college sports in the coming weeks and months.