GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The concerns surrounding the spread of COVID-19 has had a drastic impact on different aspects of society across the globe.
One of the many effects of the outbreak of the virus has been seen in collegiate sports.
A recent development occurred on Friday when the Southeastern Conference announced that "competitions, team and individual practices, meetings and other organized gatherings" will be suspended through April 15.
Fresh off the news being broken, University of Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin spoke with media members about the impact this outbreak is having on their spring sports' programs and their student-athletes.
"We have a baseball team that’s No. 1 in the country, a gymnastics team’s No. 2 in the country," Stricklin said. "We have a lot of teams ranked in the top-10 that had a shot to go have a great year and there’s some coaches that were really hurting. I know we have some athletes that are really hurting, but they get it. They understand."
A crucial element of seasons abruptly coming to an end is the question of whether or not players will get an extra year of eligibility. As Jeff Goodman reported, the NCAA's Council Coordination Committee is granting spring sports athletes another year of eligibility.
Stricklin talked about the difficult logistics regarding this development.
"We’ve got to worry about helping young people get their year of eligibility back and then what do you do about roster sizes because there’s another group of freshmen, in many cases that have already been recruited and signed here with the expectation that kids are going to be graduating and moving on," Stricklin said. "The NCAA needs to figure that out, whether we exempt those seniors from any roster limits so that they can still be here."
Even with the NCAA announcing on Thursday that the remaining winter and spring championships were canceled, Stricklin did note that it remains to be seen if the baseball season is completely over.
As for the current status of the new baseball stadium, he said private contractors are still going through with construction of the ballpark.
"We feel really good about the timeline we have on moving baseball over and beginning on the new football training center, the Heavener Training Center," Stricklin said. "We think we're going to get it done in a timely manner and we look forward to breaking ground this summer."
Stricklin says he believes returning to normal activities on April 15 is optimistic, and this absence could potentially go longer than that date.
With COVID-19 rapidly in the United States, Stricklin is encouraging players to practice good hygiene and social distancing, as well as isolating themselves if they have symptoms for the virus before getting tested.
During this process and even beyond, Stricklin and others around him are looking to help student-athletes adjust to this difficult period of their lives.
"The psychology of an athlete is always working toward something," Stricklin said. "They woke up this morning and there was nothing to work toward. That’s a hard thing to process. In addition to great sports health programs, we have great mental health services. We’re probably going to have to really engage those with our student-athletes because I imagine a lot of them are going to be processing this for several weeks to come.”
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