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The University of North Carolina told many of its undergraduate students this week that they could go home and log on for classes. It had a different message for athletes: You can study online, stay on campus and you just might be able to play this fall, too.
The coronavirus pandemic is turning one of America’s most prestigious public universities into something of a political laboratory for college athletics, testing whether the country will tolerate the notion that the fall semester can simultaneously be safe enough for sports but too dangerous for in-person classes.