The Big 12 Conference has opened the door to open campus facilities for football players to return to voluntary workouts as soon as June 15.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that’s when things will pickup across the conference landscape, but the option is certainly there if the Mountaineers are ready to do so.

Oklahoma has already drawn a line in the sand that their facilities won’t open for voluntary workouts until July 1 citing health and safety over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once Sooners players do return, they must first be cleared by the medical staff and then will be closely monitored and evaluated as well as adhering to several safety protocols.

There is going to be a major educational aspect to this, too, as players will taught how to best approach facility usage and interaction with other players during this integration period.

The decision was largely made off the advice of medical professionals who recommended that keeping players away from campus as long as possible before a return was possible.

West Virginia has yet to declare when players will return but the option is certainly there for things to pick up at that June 15 date if officials are prepared to handle it. Again, the biggest keys are going to be the availability of testing as a whole and being able to safely clear players to begin workouts.

Those that have remained in Morgantown would likely be the first to be phased into those sessions and it will trickle down until eventually all the players are back on campus and participating. To get to that point could take some time however and even if West Virginia elects to bring players back on the first day they are permitted it is no guarantee that it would be a significant portion of the team.

There also will likely be some sort of social distancing procedures in place to use the facilities as well which are going to limit the total number of players that can utilize them at once.

West Virginia is going to have to trust the advice of medical professionals in the area as well when it comes to establishing that return date and that means figuring out the best plan of attack. The availability of testing for the virus is of the utmost importance from the start in order to get things moving.

The state of West Virginia was hit relatively mildly in comparison to the rest of the nation, but when integrating players from all different areas of the country there is obviously more risk attached.

There must be contingency plans in place if positive tests do occur and other outlets to handle issues that could arise by bringing the players back into a campus setting from all over. But that won’t be unique to West Virginia as it must occur across the college football landscape as programs start the process of welcoming back their players in preparation of a possible season.

With the calendar ready to turn to June, we shouldn’t have to wait much longer when it comes to a resolution on when a possible date could be established for a return at West Virginia but even when that is locked in there are still steps that must be taken.

Officials expect that it would take around six to eight weeks to prepare players for a return to play in the fall which if things are back and running by mid-July that would satisfy that in time for the season to start as scheduled. But that is clearly just one piece of many that must happen to get there.

Things continue to change, almost daily, over this issue and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future but talking about a possible return to football sure beats the alternatives.

WATCH: Musings from the Mountains Episode 82 | Big 12 Campus Return Dates, Attendance Contingency Plans

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