NCAA approves 'blanket waiver requests' during pandemic
by Riley Gates

While the coronavirus pandemic has taken sports away from the world, people have had to adapt to the usual routine of day-to-day life. The NCAA, too, has had to change the way it does some things and today, the NCAA made life a little bit easier for its member schools.

On Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Council Coordination Committee approved three blanket waiver requests made by multiple conferences over the last month. According to the release, basketball and football student-athletes are now allowed to participate in currently defined summer athletic activities without being enrolled in a summer school program.

Additionally, the vote allows schools to provide less than the legislated minimum financial aid requirements to maintain membership as a Division I school. It does not provide relief from other financial aid rules, including financial aid commitments to prospective and current student-athletes, or regulations related to the cancellation or reduction of financial aid.

Finally, schools that are reclassifying will count as Division I opponents in the first year of reclassification, regardless of whether or not they meet Division I scheduling requirements.

Recruiting had been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and had put coaches in a rather tough position to continue recruiting talent. Starting on May 11, the NCAA will now allow more than just coaches and a recruit to be on a recruiting phone call, as well as lifted the restriction on the number of uncommitted recruits and family members on the phone with a coach. The NCAA also chose to allow recruits to participate in virtual team activities after they have met academic requirements to graduate high school or transfer to a Division I school. Previously, they could watch, but not participate.

Coaches are currently being held off of the physical recruiting trail because of the pandemic, but that could be changing soon. The group will meet on May 13, where it will then vote on whether or not the recruiting dead period will be extended through June 30.

Coaches can also participate in virtual camps and clinics, as long as potential recruits are not in attendance at the camps or clinics. All of these changes were made on a one-year basis, according to the release.

"The flexibility is intended to provide prospective student-athletes with virtual experiences like what they would have been able to experience during a campus visit," the NCAA wrote in the release. "The flexibility begins Monday for all sports and applies only as long as the COVID-19 recruiting dead period lasts."

Coronavirus and social distancing rules say that large, crowded areas should be avoided as movie theaters, work conferences and other traffic-heavy events are being shut down across the country per state jurisdictions at the urging of the CDC. Disneyland in California, as well as Disney World and Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando, Florida, all closed their gates to visitors in mid-March amid coronavirus concerns.