If the IUPUI Jaguars are to roar this fall, they will have to wait a little longer than usual.

After months of deliberation by two internal committees, the Horizon League issued a statement on July 16 announcing that the start of fall athletics competition would be pushed back to October 1 at the earliest. Member schools retain the ability to make decisions about how each of their teams will approach training and practice.

The Horizon League's decision is an interesting move amidst the ever-changing college sports landscape of 2020. A slew of fellow mid-major conferences like the Ivy League, Patriot League, Big West, America East, Atlantic 10 and Colonial Athletic Association have either cancelled fall sports or postponed them to the spring. Two Power 5 conferences—the Big Ten and Pac-12—have implemented a conference-only schedule. Meanwhile, a third—the Atlantic Coast Conference—is allowing member institutions to schedule non-conference opponents for fall Olympic sports at their discretion, so long as these opponents meet ACC medical standards.

For their part, Horizon League administrators have opted for a more step-by-step approach.

"[Our decision] was predicated on the fact that we wanted a little bit more time," Horizon League Commissioner Jon LeCrone said in a phone interview. "We still want to try to get fall sports competition if we can do it safely. And it gave us a little bit more time to study and think about the protocols and guidelines put out by the NCAA, which really were fundamentally grounded in capacity. The capacity to test, the capacity to trace, the capacity to quarantine. If we can do that effectively and affordably, we could move forward."

By approaching the situation in 30-to-60 day increments, LeCrone believes his league can better respond to fluid developments in various areas, from the spread of COVID-19 itself to the evolution of government health regulations and university policies. While the Horizon League considered canceling fall sports, LeCrone believes that a delay is the most appropriate course of action at this time.

The July 16 statement puts IUPUI's own Competition Restart Committee in a holding pattern. Committee chair John Rasmussen revealed that he and his fellow committee members have not received an update in the two weeks since the announced delay.

"We take our direction from the athletic directors at the Horizon League," he said. "We expect them to continue their virtual meetings and conversations through the end of August. Hopefully by September, really the Labor Day holiday, we will be able to finalize if indeed fall sports are going to be competed."

As IUPUI's Senior Associate A.D. for External Affairs, Rasmussen was asked to chair the restart committee by Director of Athletics Dr. Roderick Perry in early May. Around the same time, Perry formed a separate Health & Safety Committee co-chaired by Senior Associate A.D. for Internal Operations Jaunelle White and Assistant A.D. for Sports Medicine Lauren Rawson. While Rasmussen's group manages aspects of returning to competition, such as scheduling, they defer to White and Rawson's outfit regarding health practices like the wearing of masks.

The Competition Restart Committee met weekly over Zoom from May 26 to June 25, during which they identified four groups of individuals relevant to the possible restart of sports. Tier 1 includes players, coaches, officials and team personnel. Tier 2 consists of athletic department and maintenance staff. Tier 3 refers to broadcast personnel, and Tier 4, the general public. 

Rasmussen has stayed in touch with Rawson about developments from the Health & Safety Committee throughout the process. In July, he also began conversing with numerous Jaguar head coaches about specific challenges and concerns pertinent to each of their sports.

Said restart committee member Ed Holdaway about Rasmussen: "He's just got a lot of experience, a lot of world experience, and all that's kind of beneficial to decision-making. To have someone like that, they're going to be sound in terms of their decision-making, and they're going to take in as much information as possible before making decisions."

Holdaway, the Assistant A.D. for Communications, is a familiar face to many Jaguar players and athletic personnel, as well as students of IUPUI's Sports Capital Journalism Program. His role on the committee is tied to operations. What does it look like to physically distance in the press box? How can photographers, videographers and other Tier 3 personnel do their jobs safely? Much like Rasmussen and LeCrone, Holdaway has spoken with colleagues around the country in order to address the questions within his purview.

The Competition Restart Committee also features two Jaguar student-athletes. Junior Kamryn Benscoter is a midfielder on the women's soccer team, while senior center Morgan Allen is part of IUPUI's Horizon League-winning women's basketball unit. Both are members of the school's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC): Benscoter is the Head of Legislation Committee, while Allen serves as Administrative Vice President.

"I thought it would be a good opportunity to be an advocate for student-athletes and kind of voice our concerns and questions for the upcoming year," said Allen, who was happy to accept Rasmussen's offer to join the committee.

As a soccer player, Benscoter has a good grasp on the schedule and pace of fall sports, and what needs to happen for them to proceed successfully. Allen, meanwhile, understands what it's like to play in a crossover season from fall semester to spring semester. Both have brought an invaluable perspective to IUPUI's attempted restart process.

Said Holdaway: "Being student-athletes themselves, [Benscoter and Allen] have the pulse of the student-athlete in mind. They think of things differently than we do as administrators, and so, having their vision and keeping their interests in mind really helps shape and mold our decision-making."

Two of the largest takeaways from committee deliberations so far pertain to masks and health monitoring. Allen and her colleagues learned during the third week of July that student-athletes will be required to wear masks at all times when inside athletic facilities, including at practice and conditioning sessions. As well, all Jaguar athletes will use a new app (similar to the NBA MyHealth app) to track and self-report symptoms on a daily basis. The app will be deployed in conjunction with temperature tests for every person who enters a gym or fitness facility.

Additionally, the NCAA released a medical advisory update on July 16 recommending more frequent COVID-19 tests that return results within 72 hours. However, Rasmussen has heard from his colleagues that in some situations, testing done for student-athletes who have voluntarily returned to campus can take upwards of a week to return results.

"We certainly want to follow the best practices that the NCAA is suggesting," Rasmussen said. "I think the ability for IUPUI Athletics to turn around tests within three days prior to competition would, number one, put a pressure on the testing capacity here in our community. But I would be naive if I didn't also suggest there is a financial capacity there that we're concerned about, not just for IUPUI athletes but the visiting team as they arrive. That's one of the notes that Dr. Perry is having league-wide discussions [about]."

The combined efforts of both IUPUI committees has led to the drafting of a 20-odd page document describing proposed operating protocols, from overarching health regulations to more granular details about the day-to-day operation of IUPUI Athletics. Rasmussen stressed that the draft, currently about "95 percent complete", will not be finished or released unless the Horizon League commits to having a season this fall.

Adding further uncertainty is the way that a proposed athletic schedule may or may not line up with academics this coming year. At the moment, IUPUI plans to run a hybrid model where some (but not all) classes will meet in person from August 24 to November 20, at which point everything moves online. In the spring semester, classes begin online January 19, and some will transition to an in-person format around February 7.

Rasmussen is cautiously optimistic that online classes may offer flexibility if delivered in an asynchronous manner. In that case, student-athletes would be able to complete academic material at their own pace instead of being locked into an in-person class.

Allen, on the other hand, expects that a hybrid model will only compound the challenges posed by a COVID-affected athletic season, especially when health protocols and potential on-the-fly rescheduling are taken into account.

"Our seasons kind of aligned with the school year before, and now it's kind of all jumbled up," she remarked. "As student-athletes, we already have an immense amount of pressure from school, from athletics, and we have such a busy schedule. Now, you add in the uncertainty of COVID and you have to consider how it's gonna change and be ready to adapt to any situations that may arise. Definitely, the uncertainty of the upcoming season and the upcoming school year has added a different dimension to the mental health of student-athletes."

Uncertainty has been the central theme of life in 2020 so far, and in all likelihood, it will continue to be. But if there is a silver lining for the Horizon League, it's the fact that COVID-19 has yet to impact the Midwest to the extent that it has impacted other areas. As of July 30, confirmed cases in states like Michigan (89,026), Ohio (87,893), Indiana (65,918) and Wisconsin (55,119) trail behind the numbers in hotspots like California (487,855), Florida (451,415), New York (418,302) and New Jersey (182,475).

LeCrone and Rasmussen both believe that geographic location played a key factor in conferences like the Ivy League and Patriot League (both located on the Eastern Seaboard) deciding to cancel fall sports as quickly as they did. Both feel that the fate of Horizon League sport in 2020 rests more on local developments within the Midwest than it does on what other conferences are doing. And until (or unless) things get worse, the Horizon League will do everything it can to soldier on.

Holdaway, for one, chooses to keep the silver lining in mind.

"I think the Midwestern states are taking pride in: you know what, let's take care of one another, and treat each other well, and wear masks, and do our best to stave this off," he opined. "Right now, we're living in a different world than what we lived in a year ago. So that presents some challenges and some unique perspectives that we need to face, but I think by and large, I do gain optimism knowing that our campus and our department is doing its best to keep our students and our student-athletes safe."