Thursday, Purdue football commenced voluntary off-season workouts, the first sign of athletic life on the West Lafayette campus since March, when the COVID-19 outbreak first caused mass closure of college athletics.

Tuesday, men's basketball follows suit. In the weeks that follow, so will women's basketball, volleyball and soccer, respectively.

It's a world now where the smallest things, the things you'd never give a second thought to under normal circumstances, can become outsized problems.

Here's a few things to know about how things are being handled.

The NCAA has only approved a return to voluntary work to this point, after a months-long moratorium on all athletic activity was lifted. It is believed a move toward required activity could occur later this summer, but as of now, it's all voluntary.

Even when that changes, nothing about circumstances this year are normal.

Athletic director Mike Bobinski said Purdue held a call with football players and parents — hundreds of people — regarding protocols involved in the return and made it known that players could opt out of returning to campus should they so choose. None did, he said.

Nevertheless, the option will remain on the table. As things trend decidedly toward there being football in the fall, should a player or their families decide against participation, then that will be their right.

"It's (a situation) that I don't believe we'll have a whole lot of incidence of," Bobinski said, "but if we do ... then this year is one of those years where you're just going to live with that. You're going to have to provide that opportunity and be understanding of that and not punitive about it.

"That's a whole new world for us, but that's the world we find ourselves in."

Purdue is testing all its student-athletes, obviously, with guidelines in place to deal with positive results. (As of Thursday, there hadn't been any, Bobinski said.)

Temperatures are taken daily and athletes quizzed regularly on their well-being. Obviously, as with every other walk of life these days, anyone experiencing potential symptoms should withdraw and make it known.

Should an athlete test positive, he or she will be pulled out of circulation, quarantined and contact-traced. Those who may have been exposed will be tested and held out of workouts until negative tests are returned.

So, yes, athletic departments are going to be burning through a lot of COVID-19 tests.

For the near term at least, the days of 80 football players sharing the weight room or an entire basketball team sharing the floor together are a thing of the past.

At Purdue — and presumably all over — groups will be limited in size.

For football, right now the limit is 20 players in Purdue's 20,900-square-foot weight room, Bobinski said. Basketball groups will be a handful of players at a time.

The smaller the groups, the better the social distancing.

Not only that, but the smaller the groups, the more manageable the contact-tracing, should it be necessary.

Purdue's locker rooms are off-limits, requiring student-athletes to show up in their training attire from their residences. (Gear and laundry services are still provided.)

Team lounges and other common areas are also closed off.

Mask-wearing is required for anyone in Purdue's athletic facilities, participation in training notwithstanding.

Facilities are organized now in such a way, Bobinski said, that there are separate entrances and exits to manage flow and that equipment and facilities are regularly sanitized with "the most high-tech EPA-approved cleaners."

Purdue's purchased new hydrostatic sprayers on top of said cleaners, part of a tab that's now running in the ballpark of $400,000 on COVID-19 accommodations alone, he said. Purdue's also purchased digital ticket scanners for the fall, another pricey nod to post-COVID realities.

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