Arizona AD Dave Heeke met with the media today, virtually through Zoom, to update us on the latest with UA's reentry plan for athletics and much more. Here's a rundown of some of the notable things that Heeke had to say throughout the roughly 40-minute session.
• Heeke said that all construction projects related to facilities are "all on a pause right now" because of the current situation. He said the focus right now, day to day, is on the budget of the program and he said all the projects will be addressed when it is "appropriate" to do so in the future.
• As you can imagine football was a big part of the discussion and Heeke said it would be "devastating" to not have college football from a financial standpoint since so much of what happens with football and how much money it brings in funnels to other sports. He said there hasn't been a discussion about not having a football season this year and added that Arizona is planning to be playing games in the fall.
"Our full intention is to have competition in the fall for football," Heeke said. "So, we are taking those steps to bringing our players back ... and to be able to train and be prepared for a college football season."
He added that nobody knows what the college football season will look like at this point and he pointed to numerous hypothetical situations and "ideas" that are being floated. He said the goal is to preserve a complete season "or as many games as possible" for football teams this year.
"That's critical to the overall economic health of not only the University of Arizona but all of college athletics at the Power Five level," he said.
• Because of the hiring freeze at UA, that has also impacted athletics, coaching vacancies have not been allowed to be filled such as with the Wildcats' expected hire of Jason Terry as an assistant coach on the basketball side. Heeke said that once the picture is more clear that players will start returning to campus that is when those decisions can be made to fill open positions. While he didn't say so explicitly, it sounds as though there could be some exceptions made.
"Every one of our positions we'll evaluate in a unique way depending on the circumstances, but generally we're in a hiring freeze across those vacant positions," he said. "We have a number of those in athletics to the tune of, I would say, 20 positions that are vacant at this point."
Heeke added that the two open volleyball staff positions and the men's basketball position that remains open should be filled "in the near future."
• As far as when athletes can get back on campus, Heeke continued to refer back to a date of June 1 as to when the picture will be more clear about getting players back in Tucson. He said the UA staff and coaches have come up with several different options about a return for players to be prepared for any type of scenario that comes up.
"We're trying to develop as many options and plans as possible that make sense, so that when things become more clear we can begin to travel down certain roads and be ready to move," he said.
He added that football is going to take the longest amount of time to be ready to play games and that those players would need "around a six-week period" to be fully prepared to take the field and play in a game.
• Heeke did admit that things will be different at first as players return to campus, as games begin and as fans are allowed to be let back into games. He said the "uncertainty" is the biggest obstacle UA athletics faces at this point.
"I couldn't be more clear that our intention all along is we're gonna play football and we're gonna have an opportunity for fans to take part in that in some way," he said. "We don't know, and it may be a modified approach to fans, but we're moving to bring as many people in – including our students – into the games going forward.
"We'll see what happens at June 1."
• As far as a football season that features only some of the Pac-12 programs, Heeke said he doesn't envision that type of scenario playing as the Pac-12 is approaching the season united with all 12 programs.
"I really don't like to go down the road to too many hypotheticals," he said. "We continue as a conference to be very aligned that all our members would play football together. That we would continue to have a Pac-12 season. ... We have not talked about a modified season in that way."
• Arizona obviously has numerous international players already on current rosters and many more expected to join the programs this upcoming school year. At this point it is not clear how that situation will play or when they will be allowed to leave their home countries and arrive to Tucson to begin preparations for the season. Heeke sounds optimistic that players will have a chance to eventually make it to campus before the start of the season without too much of a delay.
"It will be a challenge, but we think most of those individuals will be able to come back," he said. "... We're working with different embassies."
• When it comes to how the current situation could impact future scheduling, Heeke said there will continue to be a shift toward scheduling more regional opponents in nearby states such as New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and California to cut down on travel costs as the department tries its best to keep those costs low. He said he understands the appeal of big matchups on a national scale, but the trend will be to have more games against teams in close proximity to Arizona.
