Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy eyes May 1 start despite Big 12 activities ban until June

Mike Gundy wants to turn the calendar to May and start working toward the 2020 season.

The Oklahoma State football coach said Tuesday during a media teleconference he hopes tests for the coronavirus will be available by May 1 to clear employees and players. If someone does test positive, Gundy said they’d be quarantined and treated like the program does with those who get the flu during the season.

While Gundy may want to return to his work life as normal by May 1, he won’t be able to do since the Big 12 conference suspended team activities until May 31 due to the coronavirus. This suspension includes all team and individual practices, meetings, and other organized gatherings, including spring football. However, teams are allowed to meet virtually with meetings limited to four hours per week.

It was the first time Gundy has spoken to media members since COVID-19 shut down the sports world, including college athletics. Gundy did acknowledge older people on staff might not come back as they’re more likely to more vulnerable to the coronavirus.

“Maybe they don’t come back,” he said according to ESPN, “but the majority of people in this building who are healthy ... and certainly the 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-, 22-year-olds that are healthy, the so-called medical people saying the herd of healthy people that have the antibodies may be built up and can fight this? We all need to go back to work.

”I’m not taking away from the danger of people getting sick,” he said. “You have the virus, stay healthy, try to do what we can to help people that are sick. And we’re losing lives, which is just terrible. The second part of it is that we still have to schedule and continue to move forward as life goes on and help those people.”