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The NHL is still more than a week away from determining a return-to-play format, a person familiar with discussions told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

And what that plan resembles could be complicated further should the U.S. and Canada extend border restrictions to non-essential travel into July, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the discussions are private.

The person spoke after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced border restrictions will stay in effect through June 21. This marks the second time the restrictions have been extended since first being put into place March 18 because of the new coronavirus pandemic.

“I am hopeful that today’s announcement will not have a material impact on our return to play discussions and timeline,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an email.

Though the NHL has left open the possibility of having training camps open as late as early August, it was unclear what effect further border restrictions will have on a league with seven of its 31 teams based in Canada.

There’s also a question of how travel restrictions will affect players, many of whom have returned to their offseason homes — including about 17% of players currently self-isolating overseas.

In a separate development, the NHLPA’s executive board voted to defer the final payment of players’ regular season salaries through the end of May. Players were owed their final checks on April 15, before voting to defer those payments for a month.

The decision provides temporary relief to the NHL’s bottom line, opening the possibility of players foregoing some or the entire remainder of their final checks. The players stand to lose all or a portion of what they are owed under the collective bargaining agreement.

Players and owners split hockey-related revenue on a 50-50 basis, with a percentage of players’ salaries placed in an escrow fund. Owners can draw from the fund should their share fall below 50%, which is projected to happen this season.

Owners considered the players previous decision to defer payment as a sign of good faith. Daly declined to comment on the latest deferment, saying it’s a decision left entirely to players.

The NHL paused its season on March 12, with Commissioner Gary Bettman adamant the league intends to award the Stanley Cup, even it means extending the playoffs into September.

The decision on when and how to resume the season is being left with a committee made up of representatives of the NHL and NHL Players’ Association.

The topics of discussion include whether it’s feasible to conclude all or a portion of the regular season or go directly into the playoffs. The season was postponed with 189 games remaining and teams having played an uneven number of games.

Among the options discussed are an expanded playoff format, featuring as many as 24 teams, and the likelihood of having groups of teams gather and play games in a select number of hub cities around the continent and without fans present.

There is no set deadline as to when play must resume before the NHL considers canceling the season. Games could feasibly be played into October with the 2020-21 season potential opening in December or January.

New Jersey Devils defenseman Connor Carrick said both sides are attempting to make the best of a difficult situation.

“It’s going to be an interesting solution, and I think you embrace the novelty with it,” Carrick said.

One concern is how a potential nine-month layoff would affect players on non-playoff teams.

On Monday, veteran Devils goaltender Cory Schneider said a growing number of players are concerned the NHL will announce a “drop-dead” deadline for returning to play.

“I think that’s everyone’s concern right now,” said Schneider, the team’s union representative. “It’s a lot of guys asking is there a drop-dead date? What’s the date that it’s just too late, that you can get a semblance of a season or a playoff.”

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The number of teams facing postseason bans because of low scores on the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate has nearly doubled in one year.

Fifteen teams face the most severe sanction next season or the season after compared with eight in 2019-20. Stephen F. Austin and Alabama A&M each had three teams on the list released Tuesday.

Any teams posting a four-year score below 930, which predicts about a 50% graduation rate, can be penalized. Scores are based on academic eligibility, graduation and retention. Each athlete receives one point per semester if they remain academically eligible and another if they graduate or return to school for the next term.

The NCAA announced last week that a record 1,266 teams had perfect scores of 1,000.

But these scores, which cover 2015-16 through 2018-19, shows seven teams in Division I falling below 900, with two each at Stephen F. Austin and Alabama A&M.

The men’s basketball team at Stephen F. Austin posted the worst score of any Division I team, an 810, while the Lumberjacks’ football program finished with an 894. Both programs, along with the school’s baseball team now face postseason bans.

Ryan Ivey, the school’s athletic director, declined to comment ahead of a news conference later Wednesday.

Alabama A&M’s men’s track and field team posted the second-lowest score in the nation, 866, and will be prohibited from postseason play along with its men’s basketball and women’s soccer teams. Athletic director Kenyatta Walker, however, cited improving single-year scores as well as better marks in other sports as examples of progress the school’s athletes have made in the classroom.

“Our student-athletes have been resilient and have risen to the occasion,” Walker said. “We are excited to see the continued improvement in our athletic department’s APR scores, this is a true testament to the commitment and excellence from our student-athletes, the academic support staff and coaches.”

Of the 23 teams facing penalties, which can include reductions in practice time and games played, 18 are from historically black colleges and universities. The other five: Chicago State’s men’s basketball program, McNeese State’s football program and the three teams from Stephen F. Austin.

Those schools could elect to delay the penalty by one year following last week’s vote by the Division I committee on academics.

Howard and Prairie View A&M will be ineligible in football while Delaware State and Alabama State face tourney bans in men’s basketball.

“The current state of our men’s basketball program as it pertains to APR has been difficult for all parties involved,” Alabama State athletics director Jennifer Lynne Williams said. “The staff of ASU’s department of intercollegiate athletics is particularly saddened for our student-athletes. Their complete student-athlete experience is what we value most, and to have an obstacle such as this one impede on their experience is extremely disappointing.”

All of this comes at a time the NCAA’s numbers reveal a rather stable academic picture: Athletes posted an overall score of 983 for the third consecutive year.

When broken down by sport, things didn’t change much, either. Baseball and women’s basketball teams each improved by one point, to 977 and 983, respectively, while football maintained last year’s score of 977. Men’s basketball dropped one point to 966.

And for the first time, schools will see an economic payoff from classroom success.

The NCAA will distributing money to schools that post an all-sport, single-year score of 985 or higher; that have a Graduation Success Rate of 90% or higher; or produce a federal graduation rate among athletes that tops the federal average of non-athletes by at least 13 percentage points.

The Division I board of directors said it will not announce which schools receive the payout but acknowledged the dollar amounts were impacted by the cancellation of the men’s basketball tournament.

“The sustained academic achievement of Division I student-athletes is nothing short of remarkable,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement. “Their hard work in the classroom is just as evident as their efforts on the field. Their success is something to be celebrated.”

The Power Five conferences spent $350,000 on lobbying in the first three months of 2020, more than they had previously spent in any full year, as part of a coordinated effort to influence Congress on legislation affecting the ability of college athletes to earn endorsement money.

The Southeastern Conference was the biggest spender, hiring three lobbying firms and paying them a total of $140,000, according to lobbying disclosure forms reviewed by The Associated Press. Before this year, the SEC did not employ Washington lobbyists, instead leaving the work of influencing Congress to individual universities and the NCAA.

In a statement to AP, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said the conference hired lobbyists so it could be part of the discussion as Congress gets more serious about reforming college sports.

“It is important for the SEC to have a voice in this national dialogue,” Sankey said. “We look forward to a constructive exchange of ideas about ways we can further enhance our student-athletes’ educational and athletic experiences while ensuring that any future changes can be administered fairly on a national level.”

The NCAA announced last month it was moving forward with a plan to allow college athletes to earn money for endorsements and other activities including personal appearances and social media content. California and other states have passed laws that would that would guarantee that right to athletes with few of the restrictions the NCAA is seeking. Florida could be the first to have its law take effect, starting next year.

The NCAA is pushing Congress for a federal law that would render those state laws moot and perhaps stave off future legal challenges.

Conference commissioners have spoken about a chaotic recruiting environment that would result from a handful of states passing athlete-friendly laws and schools using them to entice the best players.

At a hearing in February, NCAA President Mark Emmert said Congress needs to put “guardrails” on athletes’ ability to earn money, in part to protect against potential recruiting abuses and endorsement money being used as a pay-for-play scheme. That argument was met with skepticism by some lawmakers and athlete advocates, who believe scholarship athletes should have access to the free market like any other college student.

The NCAA’s lobbyists have continued to press the case for those guardrails, and now they have more help. A document circulated by the Power Five lobbyists, obtained by AP, lists the conferences’ “core principles” for athlete compensation, and most of those principles include limitations.

They include: a requirement for “one term of academic progress” before athletes can sign endorsement deals; a ban on athlete deals with “advertising categories inconsistent with higher education”; and limits on who can advise athletes on third-party contracts to prevent “unscrupulous actors.”

Each of the Power Five hired the same two lobbying firms this year, and each of those firms collected $10,000 from each conference. The firms — Marshall & Popp, led by ex-Republican congressional staffers; and Subject Matter, led by Democrats — both stated as their objective a “national solution to preserve the unique model of American college athletics” while allowing players to earn money from their names, images and likenesses (NIL).

“In this particular case, the (Power Five) conferences are working together on this so that there’s less confusion, not more, in terms of the messaging to congressional leaders that helps explain NIL and what the concerns are, and how it might work,” Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford told The Associated Press.

Like the SEC, the Pac-12 and the Big Ten also hired their first Washington lobbyists. The Pac-12 spent $70,000, giving $50,000 to its own firm and $10,000 each to Marshall & Popp and Subject Matter. The Big Ten paid $20,000 to the firms working for all the Power Five but did not hire its own dedicated lobbyist.

The ACC and the Big 12 each spent $60,000 — $40,000 on their own lobbyists and $20,000 on the Power Five firms. Both conferences had the same lobbyists last year, the first year either had spent significant money to influence members of Congress.

Last year, the NCAA spent $450,000 on lobbying, the most it has spent in any year since 2014, and it continued at that accelerated pace by spending $130,000 in the first quarter of this year, records show.

Rep. Mark Walker, a North Carolina Republican and an outspoken NCAA critic who has introduced legislation on the topic, said the NCAA and its allies were “tone deaf” for spending money on lobbying to limit the earning power of athletes during a pandemic that has wrecked the U.S. economy.

“You’ve got millions of Americans struggling. Close to 500,000 student-athletes have had practices and competitions canceled, and they want Congress to drop everything and give them some kind of legal backdrop, cover, after decades of abuse,” Walker said.

The coronavirus pandemic, however, has not stopped the debate over athletes’ pay, either in Washington or in statehouses. Swofford said he expected the Power Five to continue to have a lobbying presence.

“With the potential financial implications that come with the pandemic, I think any and all expenditures will be considered,” Swofford said. “But this is also a very important issue in terms of the future of college athletics and what it looks like.”

A limited number of NFL teams are reopening their training facilities Tuesday, while many are prohibited by government restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Commissioner Roger Goodell gave the 32 clubs the go-ahead for limited reopenings as long as state and local municipalities allow them. Coaching staffs and all players except those undergoing injury rehabilitation are barred from the facilities in the first phase of the league’s plan.

With such states as California, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts and Virginia still under heavy restrictions, that immediately leaves 12 franchises unable to use their facilities. The Raiders, headed for Las Vegas for the upcoming season, still have their training complex in Alameda, California.

The Packers, Ravens, Dolphins, Vikings, Titans, Buccaneers, Browns, Panthers, Saints, Eagles and Packers have chosen not to reopen Tuesday. Cincinnati expects to reopen on Wednesday. Jacksonville has set May 26 for its reopening, and Denver also is targeting next week.

Among the teams taking advantage of using their buildings on the first day they are allowed are the Cowboys, Falcons, Texans, Cardinals, Chiefs and Colts.

“We’ve spent the entire quarantine period preparing to reopen,” the Colts said in a statement, ”… but it will be very gradual and deliberate. And of course we’re taking steps to make sure we’re in compliance with state and local regulations, and NFL and CDC guidelines.”

That means primarily employees that must be in the office to do their jobs: people who need to access files that are only at the office; maintenance workers; trainers; and technology workers.

Those people will have their temperature taken when entering the building and must wear personal protective equipment. The Colts have set up one-way hallways with arrows on the carpet pointing to the proper direction, and there will be limits on how many people can be in rooms at the same time.

Coach Frank Reich was realistic about a full return to the training complex.

“The guys who have been hurt, who have been coming into the building, keep coming in and rehabbing and doing their thing,” he said.

“Other than that, as soon as we can get more players in the building — we want that to make up for a little bit of lost time. The sooner we can get together and get out there working, the better it will be.”

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones took part in an owners conference call from the team’s practice facility, The Star. About two dozen staffers were present at the complex.

The Steelers are doing a soft reopening Tuesday mainly for medical personnel and rehabbing players. They expect to ramp up use of their facility next week under league guidelines.

As the Cardinals reopen, only essential staffers will be involved, far fewer than the 75 allowed at the facility. The Super Bowl champion Chiefs also opted for a soft opening, as did the Falcons, with only about 15 people at their complex on Tuesday. Those numbers will increase over the next week.

“The fact that some teams can get in today with limited staff in non-football functions, we didn’t think in any way, shape or form that created a competitive balance issue,” said Falcons President Rich McKay, who also is co-chairman of the league’s powerful competition committee.

The Falcons train in Flowery Branch, Georgia, about 45 miles from their downtown Atlanta stadium.

“There’s one entrance to come in and out of. There’s all the social distancing to be complied with,” McKay added. “Everyone’s temperature is checked at the door and you’re asked a series of questions. Everyone must put gloves on and wear a mask the whole time unless they’re alone in a closed office. We don’t have the cafeteria open. We don’t have the team meeting rooms open.

“As we move around building, we’ll see if there are areas that give us a challenge and go from there.”

The Texans sent less than 10 people to their facility, and said, “We are considering this Phase Zero which will lead in to Phase 1 (up to 70 to 75 people) in the future.”

The Vikings are one of the teams to delay their return to their facility. Star receiver Adam Thielen notes it’s important not to rush things.

“When they say it’s OK,” he said of when he anticipates players being approved to enter team facilities.

“I’m not paid to know when that is, but when they say it’s OK to be back and the facilities open up to players, I’ll be there, and I’ll be comfortable with it. I’m trying to control what I can control. That is not one of those things that I can control.

“For me, I’m leaving it up to the professionals, and when they say we can go back and we can start practicing, I’ll be there and I’ll be excited to be back.”

Goodell has extended virtual workouts for teams through most of June. All of the clubs normally would be having organized team activities (OTAs), which are voluntarily, at this time.

“That protocol was developed with a lot of input from not only infectious disease and public health expects, but the CDC and others,” Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officers, said of the league’s phased program for reopenings.

“I’ve used the phrase that we want to walk, then jog, then run as we talk about how we reopen our facilities.”

According to the Tampa Bay Times, though, new Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady worked out with teammates at a local high school Tuesday morning.