What does the NCAA's decision to allow voluntary activities mean for the Pac-12?

BOULDER — There’s a new reason for college sports fans to feel hopeful.

The NCAA Division I Council voted Wednesday to lift its moratorium on voluntary workouts for three sports. Football players, as well as men’s and women’s basketball players, will no longer be violating NCAA policy if they work out at team facilities, starting June 1. The council will vote on student-athletes participating in other sports at a later date.

The NCAA’s moratorium on recruiting visits is still in effect.

The council’s decision to end the voluntary workout moratorium is a major step toward the return of college sports this fall. The only caveat to the end of the moratorium is that student-athletes must follow all federal, state and local laws concerning social distancing.

Additionally, conferences may have their own policies concerning team activities. For example, the Pac-12 instituted its own moratorium that is also scheduled to expire on June 1. Conference officials will vote on whether to extend the moratorium sometime prior to that date.

During a media webinar last week, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham brought up the June 1 return date.

“We don’t have any definitive answers but there is some talk about maybe June 1 introducing small groups back into the weight room,” Whittingham said. “We’ll see if that comes to fruition. But right now there’s nothing concrete. We’re just playing it by ear each day and getting the updates each day. If we are able to get back into the weight room June 1, even on a limited basis, that would be great. But that remains to be seen.”

Of the five power conferences, the Pac-12 is placed in the most precarious position. Four of its member universities are located in California, one of the states that was hit the hardest by the COVID-19 outbreak. Two more schools are located in Washington, which was ground zero for the outbreak in the United States.

Of the two schools in Washington, one is in Seattle — which has seen over over 7,500 cases in its county — and the other is in Pullman. Pullman, the home of Washington State University, is located across the state in Whitman County. So far, there have only been 16 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Whitman County.

Now, some programs would be allowed to congregate in small groups under their state and local laws and the Pac-12 is the only body standing in the way of voluntary workouts. One of those programs is Colorado and new head coach Karl Dorrell took a stance on the issue last week.

“I made this proposition to the group last week,” Dorrell said. “Let’s say if Colorado did open up and we’re able to work out… I would be in favor of that.”

But there’s no guarantee the Pac-12 will agree.

The teams that are lucky enough to be able to work out together would have a competitive advantage over those who can’t. Dorrell has a solution to that too.

“I think from a conference perspective, if there are schools that couldn’t (open the weight room), where they couldn’t come back on campus, I would try to get it legislated to where those campuses can have virtual supervision for workouts,” Dorrell said. “I just think whenever we can open up and train, that’s more important. I would try to take advantage of any and all time given what the NCAA governs us to do.”

While the Pac-12 coaches who were asked last week about competitive balance said that the preseason, on-field practice time should be the same for every program — and typically they said they’d need about 6-8 weeks of it — the off-field work could be allowed for whatever schools are capable.

The California State University system has already decided to shut down all of its campuses this fall and NCAA president Mark Emmert said sports can’t begin until students are allowed on campus. None of the Cal State system schools are part of the Pac-12, but Stanford and USC are facing similar scenarios as the Cal State schools and may not open.

Is it really a good idea to tell the Pac-12 programs that are capable of working out right now that they aren’t allowed to, even if the programs the conference is waiting for may not be able to play this season anyway?

Does the fact that the Pac-12 likely only has three football seasons before its TV contract is up factor in?

At this point, the conference is seen as one of the bottom two Power 5 conferences and a wide gap exists between the Pac-12 and college football’s elite, but some marquee non-conference wins and some strong postseason performances over the next three seasons could change the narrative. Even narrowing the gap between the Pac-12 and the Big 10 or SEC could be worth $10 million per year for each school.

The Pac-12 should worry more about competition against other conferences than competition within itself, and that means opening up as many practice facilities as is safely possible.

The NCAA decided it was time to stop hoping that every team will be able to play in 2020 and trying to level the playing field. The truth is, there will probably be FBS teams that take a year off or have a shortened season. Odds are, one of those teams belongs to the Pac-12.

The NCAA said that it is now time to stop waiting for them.

On the other hand, just hours after the council’s vote, the president of the University of California System said “every campus will be open and offering instruction.” That includes UCLA, a Pac-12 member.

It’s a complicated issue but the NCAA turned a corner that the Pac-12 and other conferences will likely turn in the coming weeks.

And while it may not mean a totally normal college football season is on the way, it’s a big step toward having something similar.

As of now, football workouts in Boulder are just one vote away.