AD Smith Favors Cancellation, but Spring Football on Hold

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith favors the cancellation of spring football across the country, but is holding off suspending workouts at OSU after an already-imposed April 6 moratorium imposed by the Big Ten amid COVID-19 precautions.

"The Big Ten made a decision that all organized activities would be suspended until April 6," Smith said in a Friday afternoon conference call. "Personally, I was of the opinion, just like a few other colleagues, that it should have been eliminated until the end of the (spring) term.

"But, that decision was made to suspend and I support that. So we will see how this rolls and at somewhere along the line we'll have to make a decision that after that there will be no more organized team activities or there will be. We'll just see how that goes."

.@NCAA granting another year of eligibility for spring sport athletes. pic.twitter.com/ucPZ2orAIn
— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) March 13, 2020

Smith said he favors an NCAA-wide decision on the future of spring football this year in Division I to preserve competitive balance.

Smith also said:

Ohio State has "disease-bombed" the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and will be sterilizing other athletic facilities on campus.

OSU shut down all athletic facilities on campus through April 6 to convey university-wide concern about preventing the overload of the health-care system in the wake of a coronavirus outbreak.

He personally supports extending an additional year's eligibility to both winter and spring scholarship athletes denied post-season championship opportunities or their final season by the suspension of sporting events by the NCAA.

Ohio State students, including athletes, must vacate their campus dorms by March 22.

No OSU athletes, coaches or support personnel have been tested for or displayed COVID-19 symptoms.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day issued restrictions Wednesday on recruiting off-campus, including the suspension of travel by his assistant coaches, and said his staff would not host unofficial or official on-campus visits for the next month.

The cancellation of spring football practices will impact all teams' development for fall, but the possibility exists that the NCAA will react with adjustments to the August schedule.

Teams could be allowed to convene sooner than previously planned or could be given extra practice sessions.

Predicting how the NCAA should react is pointless now because the reach of the virus will dictate any decisions and that remains unknown right now.

Ohio State had 15 2020 recruites complete their high school course work early and enroll early to participate in spring practice.

Those players, and returning players, will presumably still have access to the team's practice facility, but not to organized team workouts.

OSU's top objectives for spring football were to fill the gaps left by the departure of three starters in the secondary, identify a backup quarterback behind Justin Fields and develop depth at running back in the wake of an injury to presumed starter Master Teague.

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