KNOXVILLE — Tennessee athletics are on hold amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Southeastern Conference has announced that all organized team activities, competitions, team and individual practices, meetings and other organized gatherings, will be suspended through at least April 15.
The University of Tennessee has spring break scheduled for March 16-20. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, UT announced that classes will continue online through the end of the spring semester and will have alternate graduation plans.
On “Vol Calls” Monday night, Tennessee Director of Athletics Phillip Fulmer discussed the pandemic and assured a plan is in place if student-athletes are needing to return to UT following spring break.
“The ones that need to come back to campus for some reason will come back to campus,” Fulmer said. “That is the young people that might not have the best of home situation, some of our international people. We are likely going to encourage people to stay home and take their classes online. If they come back, we will support them from a nutrition standpoint and from the medical standpoint and from a mental health standpoint, those are obvious needs that will be taken care of.”
Fulmer advised that UT will not hold workouts, meetings or practices for student-athletes during the pandemic.
“We will not be having workouts,” he said. “We will not be having meetings and certainly there will be no practices until further notice. The gathering of people together spreads this virus and we are going to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.”