USC suspends spring ball
The USC Trojans announced Thursday that they will suspend spring football. The suspension is due to health concerns relating to the spread of COVID-19. The novel coronavirus has not yet affected anyone immediately affiliated with the USC campus, but schools and conferences are taking proactive measures to stop its spread.
Earlier Thursday, the Pac-12 announced that it would cancel its men's basketball tournament, following announcements that the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, SEC and other conferences would do the same.
On Wednesday, the NBA announced its decision to suspend its regular season. The NHL has paused its season, and MLB is expected to announce that it will suspend its spring training, according to reports.
USC spring ball was originally scheduled to be completely open to the public, but in the days leading up to it, USC made the decision to limit practices to players, coaches, families, essential personnel, media and recruits. Following Wednesday's practice, head coach Clay Helton said there had been no changes to that policy, but acknowledged that this was a rapidly changing situation and that information was coming in daily.
This spring was going to allow the Trojans to adjust to a completely new staff of defensive coaches and a new defensive scheme, implemented by defensive coordinator Todd Orlando. There is no official word yet from USC as to when or whether they will continue with the rest of their 15 spring practices allotted by NCAA rules at some point in the future.
USC did get in one day of spring ball on Wednesday, as the new defensive staff brought a big time boost in energy and a mix of young and veteran players flashed throughout.
USC has extended its "period of remote instruction," with online classes running through April 14, after initially scheduling it through March 30.
