NCAA to allow student-athletes to resume activities June 1

Collegiate student-athletes across the country rejoice! The NCAA Division 1 Council announced that all student-athletes can resume voluntary activities in their respective sports starting June 1.

The decision came on May 22 — two days after the collegiate athletic governing body gave the OK for football and basketball players to resume activities, according to an article published by The Detroit News.

Players can begin individual workouts, mostly on their own, subject to safety and health protocols decided by their schools or local health officials with NCAA officials noting that the workouts could go on as long as local, state, and federal regulations are followed.

“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,” Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania, said in a statement to The Detroit News. “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.”

While individual workouts will be eligible for return on June 1, required athletic activities will be suspended through June 30, according to the NCAA. The hope is that an official start date for supervised practices and workouts will be July 1.

The NCAA also announced on Friday that the Council had decided to prohibit FBS teams from hosting football camps this summer and that FBS coaches would be prohibited from working at football camps hosted at any four-year NCAA school.

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Power 5 conferences like the SEC and the Pac-12 have already announced its plans to start the football season as regularly scheduled even through the absence of spring practices and offseason workouts. The Big 10, however, has not released a date for student-athletes to return to campus, instead leaving it up to the individual schools to make the decision based on their local regulations.

Previously, the conference had suspended all activities through June 1.

To read the full story from The Detroit News on the NCAA’s decision to resume individual voluntary workouts for student-athletes, click here.