Big 12 Presidents to Meet Friday, Rob Glass Updates Conditioning and Talks Work to Do for Athlete's Return
STILLWATER -- After the Big 12 Presidents met on Monday without voting on what to do with the end of the month moratorium on team activities and student-athletes being able to train and use on-campus facilities, the NCAA opened the door a little wider on Wednesday by ending their lockdown and allowing football and men's and women's basketball student-athletes to begin training. Now, the Big 12 Presidents, according to a source that communicated with Pokes Report, will meet again on Friday and likely vote a similar scenario.
We know the SEC Presidents are scheduled to meet and vote on Friday and according to a story on NBC's College Football Talk by John Taylor only one SEC athletic director in a Thursday meeting that forwarded a recommendation to the conference's presidents was against a June 1 return and that was Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer.
The Big 12 has discussed three options, June 1, June 15, and the first part of July for a return; but Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby told Big 12 This Morning in an interview that will air Friday morning that he felt the Power Five conferences would be unified in their return.
Even with the return being June 1, the student-athletes will likely not get back to strength and conditioning training and the seven-on-seven in football and pick-up games for basketball athletes that they love in the summer for some time. Speaking with Oklahoma State assistant athletic director for athletic performance Rob Glass, I learned there will be much to do and protocols to clear before getting started.
"The big thing that is going to happen for us, and fluid seems to be the word, is the protocols in coming back to use our facilities everyday is a little bit of a new twist depending on who is involved," Glass started to explain. "There is going to be a lot to that and Doc Iven (team doctor Dr. Val Gene Iven) and what is plan is that he has put together as far as re-entry into campus. Then also for us it's about understanding that even though we're excited about the kids and what we've seen them doing on social media, their conditioning and there is a medical side that is a little over my head. The virus and maybe you didn't have a very difficult time with it that it could compromise your respiratory system, so we have a lot of things we have to work through."
Now, there have not been any reports of Oklahoma State athletes having been confirmed with the coronavirus, but the testing will likely reveal that some have and may not have known it. Young people, and especially athletes in the best of shape may not even know they had it.
For that reason, it will be a slow and tedious start to the summer training. Glass is not phased by that at all.
"We're going to have to ramp these kids up pretty slow to identify potential outliers and that's okay," Glass confirmed. "Normally we don't start out summer cycle with the NCAA and the rules they have in place until June 8. We're going to fall in line with what we had planned to the most part. We'll just be a little slower integrating into our training procedures and the intensity that we do them at. We'll have to go a little slower with guys just because they've been gone for three months."
We also asked Glass as a follow up from his interview in March where he told us that he felt that if he had to train a team in absentia that this group was mature enough and disciplined enough to get it done.
On social media we've seen athletes like linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez and safety Tre Sterling hitting the weights hard at home. Defensive end Brock Martin doing a vertical jump from the ground onto a flatbed truck and center Tyrese Williams pulling a GMC Sierra pick-up through the streets of his neighborhood in Houston. Running back Chuba Hubbard went to Baltimore and trained with former Cowboy and Ravens running back Justice Hill. Running back Micah Cooper explained how he went out and found the weights he needed and gave a stirring pep talk and using the time created by the pandemic to improve.
Glass said he thinks the players responded as he thought they would.
"For the most part I've been very pleased with most of our guys because they had to adapt," Glass said. "Everybody didn't have the same resources to utilize just to do some conditioning and some strength training. They had to be fluid and they had to adapt. We stayed in communication with the guys and they've done a great job, been very pleased with them."
Now, if the Big 12 Presidents do what we think they will do, Glass will be very pleased to get them back.
