Colorado athletic director Rick George joined reporters this morning on Zoom to address CU's financial situation as the athletic department enters the final quarter of the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

His briefing and the questions he answered are best summarized into a few areas: fans at sporting events this fall and winter, the budget/deficit and his personal expectations for the end of the NCAA recruiting dead period.

Beginning on the note of recruiting, the NCAA Division I Council currently has a dead period in place through May 31.

With countless recruits and coaches announcing virtual visits slated for June, the vibe around college football seems to be that it's going to be lifted early in the summer, perhaps as early as June 1.

Of course, that all depends on what the D1 Council ultimately rules at its next get-together.

“I think what we will see — and again, the (NCAA D1) Council is meeting in the next two weeks to make some determinations on that — but my guess is where we will start is (with) a quiet period, which means our coaches can’t go out and recruit but we can have student-athletes on our campus," George said.

"I think that’s kind of a start to getting back to some sense of normalcy.”

That seems like a reasonable guess as to how things will shake down.

With how the D1 Council has handled the continually-extended dead period over the last year, it would be hard to envision things being 100% lifted from the get-go come June 1 as opposed to some gradual return to normal, as George predicted.

As the Colorado Rockies kick off their 2021 campaign with an Opening Day showdown against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Coors Field will allow 50% capacity, the first time in over 500 days that the Rox have had fans in the stands.

George looks at what he's seeing from professional sports leagues with respect to fans steadily being added back into the equation and feels that there is grounds for hope that

“I’m really pleased to see the Rockies have 50% of people in their venue and then we’re starting to see more people at the Avalanche and Nuggets," he said. "I think it gives us a lot of optimism, but cautious optimism, for what the fall will look like.”

On the note of cautious optimism, George was asked if he had any concerns that Boulder County might end up being more militant than other counties in the state when it comes to limiting fan capacity.

A fair point to bring up, frankly, but one that George plans to take as it comes, noting that he has whipped up budget scenarios looking ahead to this upcoming fiscal year that account for 90%, 70% and 50% capacity allowed at Folsom Field and the CU Events Center.

“I’m not worried about it," he said. "We’ll work with the county and the state and our hope is that it’ll be consistent across the entire state by the time we get to the middle of the summer. If everybody can start getting vaccinated, starting tomorrow, I think that gives us great hope that we’ll be able to come back and put a lot of fans in Folsom and our events center.”

"...But our desire would be to put as many people as we can safely into our stadium and events center this winter. "

Right now, Colorado heads into this upcoming athletic/fiscal year facing a deficit of $18-20 million so it should go without saying how critical every single paying fan in attendance this fall and winter is going to be in alleviating that.

Ultimately, Boulder County will make the call on the above. But suffice to say, things seems to be trending in the direction of fans in some capacity being allowed by the time of this September.

The question, obviously, becomes how many.