https://247sports.com/college/oklah...seriously-at-extra-year-for-seniors-144976378
Casiglione wants to ‘look seriously’ at extra year for seniors
NORMAN, Okla. — Many collegiate athletes at OU and around the country have unexpectedly concluded their careers in light of the NCAA canceling all spring and winter sports because of the coronavirus. However, once the dust settles, there will be plenty of discussion on whether that should actually be the case, or they’re somehow granted another year to compete on campus.
It would be an unprecedented move. Yet, this is unprecedented, what’s taking place, and OU Vice President and Director of Athletics Joe Castiglione indicated on a Thursday evening conference call he’d be in favor of it.
“I would like to see us look seriously at providing an additional year of eligibility for student-athletes who have lost their opportunity to compete,” Castiglione said. “Certainly, that starts with the student-athletes in their final year of eligibility. There’s not another way to get it back. I don’t know how many student-athletes would come back and compete if they had an additional year of eligibility. You know, that’s all speculative.
“But it’s certainly something we’re going to continue to discuss. There may be some other legislative changes or modifications that might have to be made as we further get into making other decisions.”
Some of those legislative changes will deal with scholarship limits, maybe players getting out of National Letter of Intents, among others. But, again, it’s something that will certainly be a topic of some conversation.
“I have discussed that with not only some of my colleagues throughout the Big 12, but during the course of the afternoon I’ve been communicating with some of my colleagues around the country,” Castiglione said. “And we believe there are many different elements that are going to need to be discussed.”
The last 24-plus hours have been quite a whirlwind, of course. After Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, the Oklahoma City-Utah game was canceled, after that the entire NBA season, and now since just about everything else. All OU athletics competitions, as well as out-of-season practices and workouts are suspended until further notice.
"This rapidly developing situation has warranted consideration of many factors, and the health and welfare of people we serve is at the forefront of all of our deliberations," read a statement from the OU Athletics Department. "We will communicate updates as appropriate...Information regarding refunds/credits for tickets purchased directly through the OU Athletics Ticket Office for affected events will be announced in the near future."
Just before that announcement, a source told OUInsider.com's Brandon Drumm the football team would break from spring practice for at least three weeks. From there, it would be an unknown on if or when they'll resume and how that will affect the annual Red-White Spring Game.
“Decision on spring practice afterward seems to stem from how much Coronavirus spreads," the source said. "But that’s just initial thoughts.”
Media members were also supposed to have an open practice and interview availability session afterwards, but that, too, was canceled Thursday. The OU Athletics department made that decision in the morning.
These decisions come after The University of Oklahoma altered things and decided to host only online courses upon students’ return to campus from spring break. Classes will be held online from March 23-April 3.
“To be clear, there are currently no cases of COVID-19 at OU,” a statement from OU stated. “The unambiguous guidance from our public health experts is that this important measure is necessary to protect the health of our community.”
Fellow league members Baylor, Texas and TCU made similar decisions Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, many others, including those in the OKC metro such as The University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University, have also done the same.
“We’ll certainly follow what our country and then here close to what our university administrators decide, but we’re trying to protect our guys right now more than anything,” said head coach Lincoln Riley the other day. “And so our biggest, our immediate focus is spring break, you know, where these guys are traveling, kind of like what we discussed the other day. So that’s kind of been, even in the last week, kind of a constant. It’s changed quite a bit in the last week, so we’re just trying to educate those guys and make sure that they’re safe during that time. So that’s the main focus right now."
Casiglione wants to ‘look seriously’ at extra year for seniors
NORMAN, Okla. — Many collegiate athletes at OU and around the country have unexpectedly concluded their careers in light of the NCAA canceling all spring and winter sports because of the coronavirus. However, once the dust settles, there will be plenty of discussion on whether that should actually be the case, or they’re somehow granted another year to compete on campus.
It would be an unprecedented move. Yet, this is unprecedented, what’s taking place, and OU Vice President and Director of Athletics Joe Castiglione indicated on a Thursday evening conference call he’d be in favor of it.
“I would like to see us look seriously at providing an additional year of eligibility for student-athletes who have lost their opportunity to compete,” Castiglione said. “Certainly, that starts with the student-athletes in their final year of eligibility. There’s not another way to get it back. I don’t know how many student-athletes would come back and compete if they had an additional year of eligibility. You know, that’s all speculative.
“But it’s certainly something we’re going to continue to discuss. There may be some other legislative changes or modifications that might have to be made as we further get into making other decisions.”
Some of those legislative changes will deal with scholarship limits, maybe players getting out of National Letter of Intents, among others. But, again, it’s something that will certainly be a topic of some conversation.
“I have discussed that with not only some of my colleagues throughout the Big 12, but during the course of the afternoon I’ve been communicating with some of my colleagues around the country,” Castiglione said. “And we believe there are many different elements that are going to need to be discussed.”
The last 24-plus hours have been quite a whirlwind, of course. After Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, the Oklahoma City-Utah game was canceled, after that the entire NBA season, and now since just about everything else. All OU athletics competitions, as well as out-of-season practices and workouts are suspended until further notice.
"This rapidly developing situation has warranted consideration of many factors, and the health and welfare of people we serve is at the forefront of all of our deliberations," read a statement from the OU Athletics Department. "We will communicate updates as appropriate...Information regarding refunds/credits for tickets purchased directly through the OU Athletics Ticket Office for affected events will be announced in the near future."
Just before that announcement, a source told OUInsider.com's Brandon Drumm the football team would break from spring practice for at least three weeks. From there, it would be an unknown on if or when they'll resume and how that will affect the annual Red-White Spring Game.
“Decision on spring practice afterward seems to stem from how much Coronavirus spreads," the source said. "But that’s just initial thoughts.”
Media members were also supposed to have an open practice and interview availability session afterwards, but that, too, was canceled Thursday. The OU Athletics department made that decision in the morning.
These decisions come after The University of Oklahoma altered things and decided to host only online courses upon students’ return to campus from spring break. Classes will be held online from March 23-April 3.
“To be clear, there are currently no cases of COVID-19 at OU,” a statement from OU stated. “The unambiguous guidance from our public health experts is that this important measure is necessary to protect the health of our community.”
Fellow league members Baylor, Texas and TCU made similar decisions Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, many others, including those in the OKC metro such as The University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University, have also done the same.
“We’ll certainly follow what our country and then here close to what our university administrators decide, but we’re trying to protect our guys right now more than anything,” said head coach Lincoln Riley the other day. “And so our biggest, our immediate focus is spring break, you know, where these guys are traveling, kind of like what we discussed the other day. So that’s kind of been, even in the last week, kind of a constant. It’s changed quite a bit in the last week, so we’re just trying to educate those guys and make sure that they’re safe during that time. So that’s the main focus right now."
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