Penn State has made the Blue-White Game a bigger fan-friendly event since James Franklin took over in 2014. But the annual spring scrimmage is in doubt for the second straight year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
                                 Keith Srakocic | AP file photo

Penn State has made the Blue-White Game a bigger fan-friendly event since James Franklin took over in 2014. But the annual spring scrimmage is in doubt for the second straight year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keith Srakocic | AP file photo

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<p>Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said Tuesday she is committed to not cutting any of the school’s 31 varsity sports in the wake of the pandemic.</p>
                                 <p>Barry Reeger | AP file photo</p>

Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said Tuesday she is committed to not cutting any of the school’s 31 varsity sports in the wake of the pandemic.

Barry Reeger | AP file photo

Sandy Barbour can’t guarantee anything, of course. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic remains a threat to upend things at Penn State, just like everywhere else.

But the athletic director sees a path forward for the Nittany Lions. One that includes the return of spring practices for the football team and enough money to keep all of the school’s 31 varsity sports up and running.

“We’re having on-field practices for 30 of our programs right now, and football certainly would be that 31st when, from an NCAA structure, that they’re allowed to have on-field practices,” Barbour said Tuesday in her first news conference of the year.

“Obviously they’re going through training and winter conditioning right now, and unless conditions were to change for the worse, I don’t see anything other than us going through a traditional spring practice.”

That would be welcome news for coach James Franklin and his program as they break in a new offensive coordinator for the second straight year.

Former coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca never got the opportunity to do that last year, as the coronavirus outbreak shut down all activities on campus before the first practice.

The new hire, Mike Yurcich, will hope to get in that valuable work across the 15 allotted practices as Penn State tries to avoid anything resembling last year’s 0-5 start.

Not that anyone is celebrating just yet.

“What 2020 has taught me, and I think has taught us all, is that you’re going to have to be prepared for what comes, especially when you’re dealing with a pandemic,” Franklin said last week. “After going through a season, it’s easier to say that we can pull off spring ball and do it the right way.”

One aspect of the spring that very much remains up in the air is the fate of the Blue-White Game, the annual scrimmage at Beaver Stadium.

One of the main purposes of the game is to allow fans to flock back to campus and get a look at the team, but coronavirus restrictions would almost certainly limit attendance if not cancel the event outright for the second straight year.

“Right now, in terms of what are the conditions going to be, if it were to be today, we’d be limited to about 2,500 in Beaver Stadium,” Barbour said. “The Big Ten, I don’t know whether they have purview over spring games, but if they did, it would be limited to the families of players and staff.

“We’re going to have to get a lot closer to what the timeframe would be before we can really decide if we’re going to have a Blue-White Game and what that might look like.”

As for the health situation inside the program, Barbour was effusive in her praise for Franklin for not just overcoming a “challenging and disturbing” start to the season to finish with four straight wins, but for keeping the team almost completely free of COVID-19 cases.

Barbour revealed Tuesday that the football team had just one positive test during the year, as Penn State was just one of two teams out of 14 in the Big Ten to play all nine scheduled games.

“It’s no coincidence that we only had one positive test in football season, and we know that was contracted outside of football,” Barbour said. “It was because James led the way, James modeled the behavior, James held them accountable, and the guys all bought in.”

And restoring success on the field will go a long way to helping out the athletic department’s pocketbook.

Barbour said she is committed to not cutting any sports at Penn State as many other schools have been forced to do because of a drop in revenues during the pandemic.

The school has tapped into its reserve money to reduce the deficit caused by not having fans at home football games from last fall, one of the department’s single largest sources of income.

What will be affected, according to Barbour, is the ongoing “Facilities Master Plan,” a series of upgrades and improvements for various sports that includes a major renovation to Beaver Stadium. Timelines for those projects will likely be slowed down.

But any revenue issues didn’t prevent Franklin from abruptly removing Ciarrocca after just one year to bring in Yurcich, a move that Barbour confirmed required a buyout of Ciarrocca’s multi-year contract. Penn State has not given any details on the terms of deals for assistant coaches, but Barbour said that Ciarrocca’s buyout will go down in cost if he takes another job in the interim.

Barbour stressed that spending money on football is the key to success for the entire department.

“I think it really starts and ends with long-term financial stability and viability, which for almost all of us is going to manifest itself in success in football,” Barbour said. “Like a lot of things that we’ve talked about over time, whether it be assistants and the assistant (salary) pool, or whether it be facilities or other things, investment in football and then success from football is always going to be a key factor.

“Growing revenue is going to be a big part of the answer to any question, or any way out of all financial challenges. And certainly football sits at the top of that list.”