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Mizzou AD Jim Sterk: Athletics could go on without students on campus

Jim Sterk
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COLUMBIA, Mo. — University of Missouri Athletic Director Jim Sterk is preparing for football.

"As far as games go, we're continuing to look at starting as scheduled in the fall," Sterk said Thursday via videoconference.

Of course, a lot has to go right for that to happen in Columbia, Missouri.

One of those is getting fall sports teams back to practice. Sterk said Tigers coaching staffs and teams can reconnect in-person starting June 1.

"Right now, the way it stands, it (June 1) would be the first time where we could repopulate and have workouts in gyms and fields and things like that," Sterk said.

The problem as far as the season is cincerned is that things need to go well not only in CoMo, but at every other SEC outpost as well.

"That's 11 different states coordinating together with the states and the counties and then the campuses," Sterk said.

It's a tall order. Students being on those campuses in the fall would be the preference to make sure sports start on time, but that's not a prerequisite for football or any other sports season, Sterk said.

"Campus, if it's operational, we can have sports," Sterk said. "Classes are a different matter. If a school is online, it doesn't necessarily prevent athletic events from happening."

Those are the plans, Sterk said, for now.

"If it changes, we'll have to adjust," he said.