NCAA’s latest: Masks on sidelines, incl. players coming from field conferring w/ coaches

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The NCAA on Thursday released a comprehensive new set of “return to play” guidelines, as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on with football season fast approaching.

In a memo entitled “Resocialization of Collegiate Sport: Developing Standards for Practice and Competition,” the NCAA’s Sport Science Institute outlined several guidelines for the safe return to competition. Those guidelines include:

• COVID-19 testing and results to be completed within 72 hours of competition in “high risk contact sports” such as football • Daily self-checks for athletes and staff • Masks to be worn on the sideline by all players, coaches and staff, including players who move from the playing field to the sideline to confer with coaches

• Outdoor training when possible, with indoor training only permissible with “good ventilation”

• Individuals with “high risk exposure” must be quarantined for 14 days. The NCAA is using the Centers for Disease Control definition of “high risk exposure,” which is as follows: “any situation in which there has been greater than 15 minutes of close contact, defined as being less than six feet apart, with an infectious individual,” regardless if that individual is “symptomatic, pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic.”

“Any recommendation on a pathway toward a safe return to sport will depend on the national trajectory of COVID-19 spread,” said Brian Hainline, NCAA chief medical officer. “The idea of sport resocialization is predicated on a scenario of reduced or flattened infection rates.”

The NCAA also released a graphic showing “where we are” and “where we thought we’d be” in relation to new confirmed cases of COVID-19. As one might expect, the difference is significant.



The NCAA memo does not address fan attendance or guidelines.

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