David Cutcliffe's Plan For Making Up Spring Practice

Duke only had three spring practices before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the school to shut down all athletic activities. He’s holding out hope that, when the sport resumes, and players are back on campus, the NCAA will do something to help schools that missed large portions of spring practice make up for the lost time.

“It wouldn’t be like spring ball,” he said. “It would be more like the NFL OTAs (offseason training activities, better known as “minicamp”), but you wouldn’t get the total number of 15, because it’s really kind of an advantage, say, if we’re doing that in late June or early July, for example. In any argument we have had, we have to be uniform. We have to be unselfish. We have to all realize this is one year, hopefully and only one year that we’re dealing with this, whether it’s the football model, a recruiting model, any circumstances you’re looking at right now. We need to do what’s in the best interest of the sport—football, meaning high school and college levels. We’ve got to recognize it’s so unique that we’ve got to listen to our medical people, first and foremost. Second, we have to use balanced thought processes, fair processes, if we want to play. You know, I always say this about football coaches: the one thing we agree on is to disagree. We’re really all pretty good at that. We’ve got a lot of strong-minded people. In the end, I think the national body has to play a huge role, meaning the NCAA. And I think they have to be all ears and listen well. Conferences have to have some input, ultimately, the commissioner, as you know, will, in the end, do what’s best for the game.”