It's July: Coronavirus-willing, MLB, NBA, NHL and NFL all will restart or begin in some form
All four major American sports leagues are hopeful of being in action at some point this month.
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While the coronavirus has devastated the sports world and caused unprecedented changes, in theory it could give sports bettors the greatest July ever with the NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball and NFL all in action in some form or another. Again, that's assuming COVID-19 cooperates, which is far from a sure thing. Here's a quick cheat sheet of what the plan is for each of those four leagues this month with today being July 1.
Players were due to report to their home cities for Spring Training 2.0 and the start of mandatory testing on Wednesday with most camps – many are calling it Summer Camp instead of Spring Training 2.0 – opening Friday. Some MLB players already have opted out, and there will be more Wednesday, which is the soft deadline.
MLB has not released the 60-game regular-season schedule yet, but teams will play 40 games inside their own division and 20 against the corresponding division in the other league. So, AL East teams will play 40 vs. their divisional foes and 20 vs. NL East clubs, etc., to help minimize travel. No Yankees-Astros or Dodgers-Cubs matchups, for example.
The season is due to begin July 23, and the only known matchup so far, according to reports, is Yankees at Nationals in prime time that Thursday night on national TV. William Hill already lists the Yankees as -125 favorites on the moneyline odds in what should be Gerrit Cole's debut in pinstripes. The Nationals will not put their World Series banner up, however, until fans are allowed in the stands.
Players from the 22 teams that will resume an eight-game regular season are due to report to the "bubble" campus at the World Wide of Sports complex in Orlando from July 7-9 to start quarantine and testing. The NBA does seem to have the best plan of the four sports with that "bubble," even though the coronavirus is spiking in Florida.
If a player leaves the "bubble," he automatically goes into quarantine for no less than 10 days and must have to negative coronavirus tests before rejoining his teammates. A handful of players already have opted out and the deadline for those to do so is today because that's when rosters are due to the league.
The regular season begins with Utah vs. New Orleans and LA Clippers vs. LA Lakers on July 30. Zion Williamson and the Pelicans opened as 2-point favorites on the NBA odds, and the Lakers are -1.5 vs. the Clippers. The Lakers already have seen starting guard Avery Bradley opt out, and center Dwight Howard might too.
The NHL and the Players' Association technically haven't agreed on the return-to-play plan, but it's because the sides also are closing in on a new collective bargaining agreement. An official agreement on both should come any day now.
While the NBA and MLB are resuming/starting with the regular season, the NHL is going straight to the Stanley Cup playoffs with 24 of the 31 teams competing. The NHL's Phase 3 of its return begins July 10 when each of those teams will start training camp.
The postseason is scheduled to begin July 30 in two hub cities with the qualifying rounds. Those hub cities have not been announced yet but Toronto is almost a lock to be one and either Las Vegas or Edmonton the other. Twelve teams from the West in one city (Vegas or Edmonton) and the 12 from the East in the other (Toronto). Which city will host both conference finals and the Stanley Cup Finals is still TBA. The Boston Bruins are +550 moneyline favorites to win the Cup at William Hill.
The NFL won't have any game action in July, but all clubs will report to training camp July 28 (full rosters due; rookies and quarterbacks are allowed a bit earlier) at their club facilities; the Chiefs and Texans are allowed to report July 25 simply as they open the season a few days earlier than everyone else on Sept. 10 in the Kickoff game in Kansas City. The Super Bowl champion Chiefs opened at -10 on the NFL odds.
Teams typically bring 90 players to camp, but the NFL has discussed trimming that number down to 75 to 80 simply to help a little with social distancing in locker rooms, etc. The NFL has created a 13-page document listing guidelines for social distancing protocols during the Covid-19 pandemic. It's going to be incredibly challenging with such sizable rosters.
As of this writing, only five of the NFL's 32 first-round picks have signed because they haven't been able to take physicals yet due to team facilities being closed.
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