Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek said he felt 'mediocre' amounts of optimism while speaking with local media on Thursday, one week before walk-throughs begin and three weeks ahead of the fall camp start date.
"I'm 50/50 right now," Yurachek said. "I'll tell you that a month ago I was probably 70/30. I think if everybody will do our part as far as wearing the mask and social distancing that we still have a great chance to have fall sports this year."
It's a commonly held feeling among ADs around the nation right now. When the SEC and its member universities announced they'd bring student athletes back to campus, the rate of new confirmed cases was holding steady. It didn't come without a major price, but the spread was being slowly mitigated.
The country reopened non-essential businesses and testing increased nationwide, unveiling a surge of new hot spots and making it very obvious the virus is far from contained.
The NCAA released their testing protocol plan for the season today and, with that, a graphic showing where they thought the trend of the coronavirus was going versus where it's going now:
Mask mandates, social distancing and re-closures could get the trend back on track but Yurachek is also hoping more information will come up between now and when the big decisions need to be made by the SEC brass (pending for the end of the month).
"I watched the Bristol race with 30,000 live fans last night," Yurachek said. "Major League Baseball is going to start up next week. The NBA will start some preseason scrimmages next week. We will get a lot of data from what's happening in the professional venues over the next couple weeks that I think will really help and guide us."
The first decision the SEC will face is whether or not to play the full slate of games, postpone the start of the season or shift to conference-only schedules.
So far, Arkansas's non-conference games look promising. Yurachek said Nevada is ready to play in Fayetteville on Sept. 5 as of this week, and the ACC and SEC are working to maintain their cross-conference matchups (which include the Notre Dame game).
As far as Arkansas and Yurachek are concerned, they'll play under any conditions as long as they're allowed to play.
"Whatever number of games that we can start and play helps us in a number of areas - the ticket sales piece, the donations piece, sponsorships, licensing, the television revenue with the SEC Network, CBS, as well as ESPN," Yurachek said. "Even if it’s an abbreviated schedule of eight games, that’s much better for us financially than playing zero games."
The Razorbacks aren't facing quite the financial crisis that other programs are but a reduction in the football schedule would inevitably lead to an adjustment in the budget, and most likely, cuts to athletics staff salaries, which total over $41 million.
If SEC chooses to go conference-only like the PAC-12 and Big10, however brutal it might be on a program trying to emerge from the ashes with an unproven head coach, it may allow for a more competitive season with far fewer hiccups.
"Not that we want to follow what the Big Ten did, because our first option, as I said, is a 12-game schedule, but to have a conference-only schedule gives you some flexibility if you have a team that just can’t compete," Yurachek said. "Let’s say their first-string offense is all wiped out because of how they meet, you’d have the ability to reschedule that game later in the year if you have a conference-only schedule, or it makes it easier to do that. If it’s a non-conference game, it’s really probably just going to be a no contest and you’re not going to have the opportunity to play that game."
Yurachek said he'd like to see Georgia, Florida, Alabama and LSU complete home-and-homes, leaving the rest of the conference to fight it out amongst themselves.
At the end of the day, the third-year AD doesn't want Arkansas or the SEC to be painted as money-hungry.
"(The athletes) just want to play, and I’m going to try to find a way to make sure that happens. I hate the narrative that we’re doing this just for the money at this level. It’s not about the money. It’s a passion for these young men and women. And yes, there’s some significant financial benefit to want to say that comes from this, but the majority of the financial benefits go back into the lives and the experience of those student-athletes."
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