Major School Hits 'Pause' On Having Athletes Return To Campus
TUCSON, AZ - AUGUST 30: The Arizona Wildcats marching band perform before the college football game against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks at Arizona Stadium on August 30, 2013 in Tucson, Arizona. The Wildcats defeated the Lumberjacks 35-0. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
As student-athletes are beginning to return to campus across the country, one major school is hitting the "pause" button.
The University of Arizona announced on Monday evening that it is halting the return of its Wildcats student-athletes.
Coronavirus case numbers are rising in the area. There has been one positive test result among the 83 athletes who returned to the university for voluntary practices and workouts.
The university is deciding to proceed with caution as case numbers spike in the state.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we have made this decision with campus and community partners to pause our re-entry process,” Vice President and Director of Athletics Dave Heeke said in a statement.
“The health, safety and well-being of all members of our community is our number one priority. We will continue to work in conjunction with campus partners and our local government agencies to support and evaluate a safe and healthy return to campus.”
Several states are seeing spikes in case numbers as they've begun to open things back up. One prominent college football program, Clemson, reportedly has close to 40 positive cases among its players.
ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis remains optimistic about a season.
“I think there’s still so much to learn over the next couple of months,” Davis said on ESPN. “What all of these positive tests at a variety of schools across the country mean? What does it mean by virtue of the fact that, at least based on what’s been reported up to this point, it seems that not many players thankfully have not gotten seriously ill? So all of those things I think will unfold over the next several weeks, and then once to practices start, does that impact testing and sickness and that type of thing? So many things could change but I still have a great deal of optimism that there will be a season.”
