There will be no effort to keep UM athletes away from other students once classes resumeGETTY IMAGES
Michigan AD Warde Manuel has made it clear that the school's student-athletes "won't be isolated in order to compete during the upcoming school year," according to Andrew Kahn of MLIVE.com. Manuel said, "We will not isolate our student-athletes and put them in a hotel and keep them there. They're not professionals." He concluded, "So if that's the only way that we have to proceed, then we will have to make other decisions." Manuel has said that there "will be no sports in the fall without students returning to campus." The school "hasn’t made any announcement about the fall semester." Still, Manuel was "comfortable welcoming athletes to campus at this time." He said that he has "daily calls with a group that includes Michigan president Mark Schlissel and that Schlissel reviewed and approved the plan before it was implemented." Kahn reports one aspect "absent from the reintroduction process is any sort of waiver or pledge," even though football players at Ohio State were "asked to sign one before participating in workouts." Manuel on the subject of a pledge agreement said, "We won’t have them sign a pledge, but we do want to make sure they acknowledge the policy. It won’t be through a signature or waiver, it will be through, ‘check a box, I’ve read it,’ like we do for a lot of our policies and procedures that we go through with compliance on a yearly basis" (MLIVE.com, 6/19).
REINTRODUCTION BREAKDOWN: In Detroit, Shawn Windsor reports Manuel and his colleagues are "trying to be patient, to slow their decision making and focus on getting student-athletes safely back on campus." That includes a "14-day 're-socializing' plan that begins with a questionnaire via text." School officials will "ask student-athletes where they’ve been, how they are sleeping, whether they have symptoms, how they are eating and whether they’ve struggled with mental health problems." From there, they will "get tested, both for the active coronavirus and for its antibodies." Testing will be followed by "sheltering in place for two days." This will include "some virtual instruction regarding health history, academic counseling and education sessions." Day 4 includes a "COVID-19 testing program that includes heart tests along with general medical examinations to establish baseline concussion information and overall body compositions." The next couple of days involve "flexibility and endurance tests that will help trainers tailor specific workout plans." If a player tests positive, they "will be placed in campus housing set aside for quarantine." At any point, student-athletes can "opt out of workouts if they are uncomfortable" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 6/19).
ROOMIER BIG HOUSE: In Detroit, Angelique Chengelis notes Manuel has been "on weekly conference calls with Big Ten athletic directors." He said that while a final decision on the upcoming football season "has not yet been reached, he believes that could come by the end of this month or early July." Manuel: "We haven’t had a final decision on the season and how it will look in every aspect of that. How many fans we’ll have in the stadium? I can tell you it won’t be normal. We won’t have 110,000 people in Michigan Stadium this year." He added, "Will it be 50 percent or 30 percent or 20 percent or 10 or zero? I’m not sure." Manuel said that he has had "conversations with professional organizations in the state, as well, trying to determine the best approach to a return of sports" (DETROIT NEWS, 6/19).
