The trickle down effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) making its way from China, to other countries and now into the United States has hit college sports.
Conference basketball tournaments are being played without fans in attendance. Some schools are turning to online-only classes in order to prevent big gatherings of people with the coronavirus after students go on spring break.
The Oklahoma football team will be taking off next week for spring break at the University of Oklahoma.
“Yeah definitely,” said head football coach Lincoln Riley on Monday at his pre-spring press conference. “I give our administration credit. We’ve kind of attacked that from the front end. So we always keep tabs on where our guys are going for spring break. We’ve done that a little bit earlier, been a bit more aggressive with it this year, had a couple of meetings to educate our guys, especially our guys that have had any considerations about leaving the country, about potential risks, how to handle it, ways of staying in communication.
“We had several guys that were going to go to a study abroad trip out of the country, that’s been canceled or potentially moved back into the states. We’ve had several guys that have canceled travel plans that were planning to go out of the country. So it’s a concerning time. And the last thing you want is for something to change or a border to get shut down or a player to be exposed or not able to get back here. So we’re monitoring it, educating our guys. Give credit to our administration, everybody for kind of being on the front end of it.”
Two cases have been confirmed in the state of Oklahoma, but 125 miles away in Tulsa. None have been confirmed in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.
The Sooners will have a big gathering of people from all over the United States for the spring game on April 18.
“I’m not worried about it,” Riley said after practice on Tuesday. “I’m not a health expert. More importantly follow the country and then here close to what our university administrators decide. We’re trying to protect our guys right now more than anything. Our immediate focus is spring break, where these guys are traveling, kind of like we discussed the other day. Even in the last week, it’s been kind of a constant. It’s changed quite a bit in the last week. We’re trying to just educate those guys and make sure they are safe during that time. That’s the main focus right now.”
Oklahoma spring practice kicked off on Tuesday with the second practice coming on Thursday before spring break next week. The Sooners are set to begin practicing again on March 24 after spring break, but the University is mulling a decision to go to online classes for the two weeks after spring break.
Riley said they will adjust if needed, but a final decision hasn’t been made to what Oklahoma will do for spring football if the campus is empty for two weeks.
“That is a decision the university would have to make,” he said. “I think there are a couple of options on the table. One is not having classes but some events like this, a controlled environment like we can create here, potentially it would allow you to still get work in. The other option is closing it completely. We’ll have to adjust. We might have to pull out of the old 2015 spring playbook, right? We’ll have a couple of weeks break in the middle and then make it work. We’ll be ready to adjust.”
No recruits haven’t been able to make a visit or coaches been effected by going on the road to visit a recruit quite yet, either.
There hasn’t been a set date for when Lincoln Riley will speak with the media again.
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