Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told reporters Wednesday that the Buckeyes will be allowed to return to voluntary workouts on June 8, pending university approval to access the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and Schumaker buildings.
Smith said access to the football facilities will be limited, and students will have to sign up to enter and go through screening protocols such as temperature checks before entering.
"Basically, 'X' number of players will work out -- nine or 10. They'll disappear, the room is cleaned, and then another group will come in, they'll work out, and then the room is cleaned," Smith said. "We think between the two facilities, over a day, we'll get close to 50 athletes. We have signage in our facility that the university has approved."
Smith said coronavirus testing hasn't been a directive, so the athletic department will wait for its medical experts to advise them on that. He said they haven't determined what will happen if an athlete who has been in the facility tests positive.
Smith said that some local players could benefit from access to the facilities.
"We feel that the facilities that we have, with the protocols we can put in place relative to symptom checks and cleanliness and all those types of things is the best protected environment," Smith said. "A lot of health clubs, workout places, spas, gyms do an excellent job, but some of our young people are not in an environment where they have access to those places. So we want to provide them the opportunity to have access to the state of the art equipment we have, but also our medical people and our trainers. We're going to continue to make sure they're in the safest environment possible."
Smith said that "somewhere in early July we need to have clarity on what we're doing" as far as the football season goes, because players and their families need to be informed and athletic departments need to know from an operational standpoint what they have to do.
"I would say early July would be our timeframe," Smith said.