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Per reports from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Jeff Potrykus and Wisconsin State Journal’s Colten Bartholomew, the Wisconsin Badgers football team will be allowed to start on campus training on June 8th according to confirmation that they received from the UW Athletic Department on Tuesday.
It was announced by the NCAA on May 21st that football and men’s and women’s basketball teams could start returning to campus to work out on June 1st, and a couple of B1G teams (Nebraska on June 1st and Illinois on June 3rd) have already welcomed back players to their respective campuses. Iowa and Ohio State will be joining the Badgers in having players back on Monday.
Wisconsin did not have any of their spring practices due to campus being shut down because of the coronavirus.
Bartholomew notes: “Details regarding how the workouts will be conducted and how/if players will be tested for the novel coronavirus will be announced later this week, the official said.”
Yahoo! Sports reported that the NCAA football oversight committee is going to recommend a six-week training camp before the season. With the Badgers opening the season Friday September 4th against Indiana, that would put their first week of practice in the around the 17th of July, if you give the team a “game week” to prepare for the Hoosiers.
Sources: The NCAA football oversight committee met today. They are heading toward recommending a six-week preseason football camp model for this season. In the next week, they’re going to determine in the granular what that could look like before formally recommending it.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) May 29, 2020
Bartholomew had an interesting quote from Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez discussing the length of time it would take to get the team ready.
“I’ve played and I’ve coached where it’s been three weeks,” Alvarez said on his show broadcast on 1310 WIBA and Learfield/IMG College. “I think you could prepare a team in four weeks. In talking with Paul, if it’s four weeks, we can get ready in four. If it’s three, we can get ready in three. If it’s five, we spread things out and get ready in five. If it’s six, you have the luxury of working that out.”