David Cutcliffe on NCAA Loosening Rules Due to COVID-19

Duke coach explains NCAA is making it easier to stay in touch with players

With football teams spread out across the country, communication is critical. It’s also a time of great uncertainty, so the NCAA has allowed teams a little more flexibility in when and how they can communicate their players.

“Right now, we’re able to communicate to everyone with necessary information,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “So, for example, last week, I had a night meeting with all of our signees that haven’t come yet—not our mid years, but all of our signees and their parents. We had a Zoom meeting, and it was awesome. We were able to manage their fears a little bit and talk with them about what reality is. This is a time we all have to prepare. There is a lot of talk going on right now within the NCAA about relaxing some of those circumstances. A lot of the ppl we’ve signed are now finishing school. With that case, knowing exactly when we’re going to be able to have them in player meetings, specifically football meetings is still up in the air, but I’m going to be pushing from my end to relax it, because it’s entirely different to do this virtually, and we actually need more time.”

“With our current squad, within NCAA rules, they’ve already relaxed it,” Cutcliffe continued. “I don’t think we’re going to see a discretionary period where they have to get time off. I think we’re going to continue to get the four hours a week being able to teach. The more someone knows what they’re doing, the safer they are, and that’s a proven fact. We’ve had a lot of staff meetings and a lot of planning that’s gone into what we’re going to try to do, how we’re going to prepare it. I’m a teacher at heart anyway, so you better have a good lesson plan. We’ll have a lesson plan for returning players and a lesson plan for incoming players.”