Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Tulsa All Have Differing Views on When College Football Should Begin

SI's Pat Forde shares how football coaches are handling their teams returning during the coronavirus pandemic

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy got himself into hot water earlier last month by saying he wanted his team and staff to return to campus long before many people considered it to be safe. While other coaches in the state have taken different stances as to when their teams should return. 

Video Transcript:

We know that the coronavirus is affecting different areas of the country in different ways, and there are widly different outlooks on when life in America should get back to anything even resembling normal. But the most interesting place might be the state of Oklahoma, where there's widely different viewpoints about football there. Between Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Tulsa, the three FBS programs that are in that state. 

You might remember in early April when Mike Gundy basically looked at his watch and said, Come on, let's go. I want my staff back in the football facility by May 1st. I want the players in a couple of weeks after that. 

He came off looking a bit crazy, apologized kind of a few days later. But it looks like Oklahoma State will probably start when the Big-12 opens its doors on June 15th. Now, Oklahoma and Lincoln Riley has taken a completely different approach where he's been much more conservative as far as when they should get back. They have set a date for July 1st now for the Sooners to return to practice. And then there's Tulsa, which is even saying July 1st looks too soon to us. We are going July 6th or later. So some very differing viewpoints within that state. Not sure who's right, who's wrong at this point. Hopefully everybody gets to come back and play without incident and without any major health risks. But we're gonna have to see how all that plays out throughout the summer. And we'll be watching the state of Oklahoma very closely to see how things go there.