UW, Other Schools Carefully Inch Toward June Re-Opening of Facilities

Athletes will be welcome back on campus, but testing will need to be in place in order to proceed.

So much has to happen.

Like every other part of society dealing with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the University of Washington is trying to reopen its athletic facilities to its athletes sometime in June.

Sources say Husky football players will be able to reuse the workout areas as early as June 15, though no official pronouncement has been made yet by the school. 

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott this past week said conference athletes couldn't be in a safer environment than on each campus because of the availability of what he called "world-class" medical care.

In the accompanying video, Sports Illustrated senior writer Pat Forde offers a glimpse of what's going on nationally with major universities.

The NCAA has given the OK for football and men's and women's basketball players to begin returning to their schools. It will all be done gradually and monitored carefully.

The big thing for each university, as people congregate in some manner again, is to have safeguards in place, foremost coronavirus testing. It's an expensive but mandatory need, one being thoroughly investigated by the schools. 

Scott, in an interview on CNN, was hopeful that Pac-12 football teams could begin supervised workouts and practices by mid-July and be able to ramp up for football games by the end of August. 

Of course, this is all dependent on keeping the athletes safe from any illness outbreaks. All of these proposed timelines would become moot with any positive infections for athletes and the universities would completely shut down.