This past Saturday, I had the honor of filling in for Charley Biggs, as host of the Tulsa Beacon Weekend radio program. My guest was Oral Roberts University President, Dr. Billy Wilson, who shed some light on what ORU has done to prepare for students to return to campus, and how to proceed with athletics.

Students, who returned to class this week, were being tested for COVID-19 before coming to campus, and their health will be closely monitored. Wilson said, if a student is found to have a fever, they will be isolated and tested for the virus. If they test positive, they will remain in one of the isolation dorms, and continue their classes online until they are well.

“The ORU campus will be as safe as it can be, and we’ll carry that over to our athletics as well,” Wilson said. “We will quickly test everyone and isolate them, so it doesn’t spread. We’re ready to be flexible and know we have to have contingency plans.”

Regarding athletics, what ORU and the Summit League do is predicated by what the NCAA and local health authorities have advised.

“The NCAA overall has set some guidelines, including regular testing for all student-athletes,” Wilson said. “At the Summit League, we’re pretty committed to if the NCAA plans to have championships in a particular sport, then we will conduct our seasons and participate, as well.”

Not only will the ORU athletes be tested, but that means the visiting team athletes and staff will also have to be tested, upon arrival at ORU.

“Every athlete before every game will be tested, and that is quite a financial burden for us, but we realize it is necessary in order to keep everyone safe and still be able to conduct our sports seasons,” he said. “If the Summit League participates, we will at ORU. We believe we will be able to do this in a safe environment.”

The Summit League recently announced that fall sports will be postponed until late September and will play a conference-only schedule. The sports affected will be men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, and cross country.

“I think we will know more in about two weeks regarding the fall sports,” Wilson said.

“As of right now we’re on track to begin Sept. 23, and we’ll proceed from there. If you’re going to go to school, you might as well compete, there is risk everywhere, but our goal is to make the ORU campus one of the safest places to be in our state, for our students, our athletes, our staff and our professors.”

There has not been a decision made on whether fans will be allowed to attend the fall sports events.

“If indeed fans are allowed to attend, which is a Summit League question, and it hasn’t been decided, we would have to limit the gate for soccer, maybe spread out the fans around the field,” Wilson said. “We have to wait on the higher governing bodies, to make specific decisions on spectator attendance and a few other things.”

As with everything right now, there are still a lot of questions to be answered and many of the details are still up in the air. Right now, ORU is moving forward as best they can toward a fall sports schedule, and recently released their Summit League conference schedule for men’s basketball.

Optimism is still the key, and the ORU motto is especially appropriate at this time; “Expect a miracle.”

RADIO THIS WEEK

Again, this week, I’ll be the substitute host on Tulsa Beacon Weekend, and one of my guests will be NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

Tune in Saturday at noon on AM970, KCFO, or online at kcfo.com.

BUBBLES SEEM TO WORK

It seems the isolation bubbles created by the National Hockey League in two “hub cities,” and by the National Basketball Association at Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, are working.

Neither the NHL nor the NBA have reported any positive cases of COVID-19 since arriving at their bubble locations.

The NHL is conducting it’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the Western Conference teams all competing in Edmonton, Alb., and the Eastern Conference teams are all in Toronto, Ontario. The winner in each conference will meet in the Stanley Cup Finals in Edmonton, beginning Sept. 22.

The NBA restarted the season on July 31, in Orlando, with 22 of the 30 teams in the league. Those teams that were within six games of a playoff spot were invited to participate in an eight game “regular-season” to determine seeding for the playoffs. The NBA Finals is scheduled to begin Sept. 30.