Colorado athletic director Rick George on Wednesday spoke with select national and local media to provide an update about Colorado athletics as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact sports and universities.

George discussed a wide-ranging array of pertinent issues, including spring practices and the potential fiscal impact of a shortened or cancelled fall sports schedule.

A full transcription of the conference with accompanying notes can be found below.

Q: Is there any traction in terms of the Pac-12 petitioning the NCAA to allow for more than two hours per week for "virtual group activities," which includes film study?

*For the full Pac-12 statement on that note, which was part of a more general announcement that suspended all organized team activities through May 31. Click here.

A: "The May 31st date, one thing that wasn't part of that release is that there's a look-in date for May 1, so we can kind of evaluate that time frame...we are looking to improve the two-hour time limit to four hours. We'd like to be able to do that because football in the offseason (usually) has eight hours (per week) and two are (used for) instruction. Allowing us to go to four hours in a time when we need to better engage out student-athletes, it's challenging for everybody to be able to communicate appropriately and effectively. As long as it doesn't impact or go over their class commitments...we think it makes a lot of sense for us to engage them more, particularly at a time when we're not able to meet with them face-to-face or have any activities in person."

Q: Is Colorado prepared to play spring football practices through June or is it more likely that they'll be cancelled? What have the discussions on football scheduling (for the fall) been?

A: "We're looking at modifications. In a best case scenario, you're looking at June, July and August leading up to the football season (to conduct the practices usually held in spring). I think what you'll see is maybe some modifications of rules and regulations during that time frame that will give coaches more time to spend on instructional things that hasn't been allowed in the past. In think you'll see come of that come out in the next few weeks or months. I'd love to say that we're going to have a spring game, but I don't know if that will happen. But I do think there will be some modifications to the current legislation if in fact we don't have any contact with student-athletes face-to-face until June."

*George does not know if a Spring Game will take place in 2020.

"As it relates to the schedule, I think it's a little premature to talk about what that will be. Certainly there's discussions and people are talking about (when) the season starts, and you evaluate different things online and hear a lot of different things about starting at different time frames. It's too early for us to discuss...so I don't think there's a ton of discussion on that right now, but certainly as the days go on, there will be a lot more about what that looks like. You've got to plan for everything and that's what we're trying to do. We're working closely with our peers in the conference and other conferences around the country."

Q: Given that Colorado has lost all the income in ticket sales, etc. from the spring sports that were cancelled and adding on to the diminished revenue distribution from the NCAA, how might that affect the day-to-day decisions of how the athletic department might operate in the next fiscal year?

A: "That's a good question and one that we're looking at and talking about. Fortunately, we don't have a lot of spring revenue that comes in for our spring sports teams, so we don't really have an impact there. The fact that we completed our football and basketball seasons were really important because there's a lot of revenue that comes through donations, ticket sales and our TV contracts — most of those were already done and exercised. The impact in this fiscal year, there will be a financial impact this fiscal year. It won't be as big as you might expect at this point, and next year in how we budget will be real important. Certainly we'll have to look at all the things we're doing as we move forward to put together our budget with different scenarios for next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

"Q: Is there any sort of financial contingency planning with respect to a budget for next fiscal year?

A: "I think it's prudent for us to do that and we are in the process of dong that. We'll continue to look at that over the next few weeks..the budgeting process begins later this month and certainly we will have different scenarios for different things that could occur."

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Q: Have any Colorado student-athletes come down with COVID-19 to your knowledge?

A: "To my knowledge, I haven't heard of an occurrence."

Q: What's the situation with international student-athletes? Have they been able to make their way home or has CU provided arrangements for them?

A: "It's a combination of both. We have a number of international students that stayed and we have some that were able to get home prior to any travel bans, so I think that's worked well from that perspective. We're supporting our international students just like we are supporting our domestic students. The one thing that's a little bit challenging is the time zones, with class times here in the U.S....I think we've worked through it fairly well."

Q: With some teams getting through some portion of spring practices, is there any ongoing discussion about leveling the playing field in that respect, making sure that everyone gets the same amount of days on the field?

A: "We haven't gotten (there) yet but we're certainly looking at all of those things. I don't want to sound selfish, but we've got a football that was only hired three or four weeks ago and who has built his staff a few weeks ago, without the opportunity to build the culture that you want and all the things around it. I don't know if it's practice that is so important as much as it is creating that culture that you have with your football team. It's very difficult to do virtually but we're going to look at all of that. I think because of the timeframe and when things could potentially start back up, there's going to be a lot fo questions, framework and modifications that I think will need to take place to create a balanced paying field."

Q: Are there things the AD is doing now, in anticipation of revenue being down this upcoming fiscal year?

A: "We're having discussions with my executive team frequently to put some scenarios and things down. Our budgeting process is at the end of this month and in early May, so we have some time to put our thoughts together and where we think this will be. There's two layers to it, too, because now you've got seniors who can potentially come back, that exhausted eligibility in the spring. What does that cost? You've got to factor that into your budget. And then, as it relates to name, image and likeness, what does the NCAA come down with in their report at the end of this month? What impact does that have? Do you need to hire additional staff? All those factors will go into what we're thinking going forward.

Q: Have you spoken with tad Boyle about whether he will get his bonus for appearing in the NCAA Tournament?

A: "Yes, we have. We've had that conversation and we're still having that conversation. Tad and I have had a lot of conversations not just about that, but the future and some things that have gone on in his program. We'll figure out what all that looks like in the next few days."

Q: How important to keep the Texas A&M home-and-home on the schedule?

A: "I'm excited about that game being on our schedule and I think it's going to be great for both institutions. It is early in the year and we have two games prior to that, but we'd like to continue to have it on our schedule...it's great for our coaches to have a presence in Texas with us going there to play because they do have a pretty good reach in Texas. It's important and we know it's a game that'll be relevant nationally...with A&M being away this year (the potential cancellation of the game due to a shortened season) won't have the impact that it would in 2021 (when the Aggies are set to appear in Boulder)."

Q: Where does the conversation about Pac-12 media rights stand with respect to the ongoing coronavirus situation?

A: "I know Larry Scott and his team are working on what that looks like in the future and they're having a lot of discussions with our president and chancellors within the conference. I certainly don't think it'll slow down the process that they're working on and I'm sure those are fluid as we move forward. I think the time frames that the commissioner has talked about relative to our media rights moving forward are still on track."