Yahoo Finance Iowa AD: Athletes unwilling to play because of coronavirus concerns won't lose their scholarships
If an athlete at the University of Iowa doesn’t feel comfortable playing during the upcoming season, that athlete will not be risking his or her scholarship by sitting out the season.
Iowa athletic director Gary Barta told reporters Thursday that any athletes who had concerns about coming back to training or work at the school because of the coronavirus would not be penalized with the revocation of their scholarships.
“We have had conversations about what happens if a student-athlete or a staff member doesn’t feel comfortable coming back to work,” Barta said. “And understand, there could be an underlying health reason that they’re not able to come back and train or work. Or it could just be a concern that isn’t able to be addressed. Because remember, as long as the virus is here, and until a vaccine is created there will be risk. And we cannot eliminate — no matter what we do — we cannot eliminate risk. We will work to mitigate it and then people will have to make that choice.”
“If we have a student-athlete who chooses not to return they still will remain in good standing with their team. We will work to mitigate the concerns that they raise but we would not have a student-athlete, during this year, if they felt that they couldn’t compete or train because of this COVID-19 virus, they would not lose their status or their scholarship.”
Iowa football players can begin voluntary workouts on campus on June 8. Barta said that neither he nor coach Kirk Ferentz had heard from players about any coronavirus concerns but also noted that players wouldn’t have to notify them of any reluctance to train in June because the workouts are voluntary. The NCAA’s Division I Council has said that countable athletic activities — those led by a coach like official workouts or practices — are banned until at least July 1.
Basketball players will resume workouts at Iowa on June 15 and other sports will then follow.
Iowa’s plan to keep scholarships intact for players who are reluctant to practice or play will likely be adopted by many other schools across the country. It’d be an extremely petty move for a school to revoke the scholarship of a player who was reticent to play for health reasons relating to an extremely contagious virus. And there’s a good chance that we’ll see at least a handful of athletes across the country elect to sit out the 2020-21 seasons because of the pandemic.
75 percent of season tickets have been renewed
Barta said that three-quarters of Iowa’s 48,000 season ticket base from 2019 had renewed for the 2020 football season despite the pandemic. The capacity at Kinnick Stadium is just under 70,000, but it’s highly unlikely that Iowa will be able to have a full stadium for football games in the fall. If and when that’s the case, Barta said that the team would use its points system for ticket holders to determine ticket priority for home games.
“If we have to go anything lower than 48,000, we’ll have a plan,” Barta said. “But right now that’s plan B. Plan A is the ability to have anyone who’s purchased those tickets be able to come.”
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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