NC State bringing athletes back to campus in four phases

In a letter published on GoPack.com this morning, NC State athletics director Boo Corrigan outlined the basics of the plan that will gradually bring Wolfpack athletes back to campus. The process begins with football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball players who live locally. Here is the bulk of it:

In accordance with NCAA guidelines on voluntary workouts, we have begun to allow members of our football, men’s and women’s basketball programs who live locally to receive physical examinations from our sports medicine staff, as well as COVID-19 testing. If cleared, they will be given the opportunity to participate in voluntary workouts under specific guidelines. We will make training spaces available at the Murphy Center, our football practice fields inclusive of the Close-King Indoor Facility, Reynolds Coliseum and the Dail Basketball Complex. Each sport will have student-athletes broken into pods consisting of small groups to ensure physical distancing and safety.

Step two of our process will begin no later than June 20 with the permissible return to student housing for our returning and incoming football players, with men’s and women’s basketball to follow shortly after. Once cleared by our medical staff, we will continue to follow all applicable strict guidelines and safety measures and allow voluntary workouts.

(“Voluntary” workouts. Heh.)

If this goes well, the rest of State’s fall sports athletes will be next in line, followed by everybody else. I’d like to see more details about the process, namely the plan for coronavirus testing throughout the summer, but maybe that hasn’t been entirely ironed out at this point.

The university already has decided to begin classes early, on Aug. 10, and end the semester prior to Thanksgiving.