By the time the University of Hawaii football team hits the field for the opening of camp Friday it should have an idea of what kind of a schedule it will be playing this fall.

Then, again, that is if the Rainbow Warriors get on the field Friday for an activity that has already been twice postponed. This to prepare for a season that carries no certainties but packs plenty of concerns for those determined to push on in the face of a raging pandemic.

Today they hope for a measure of clarity to emerge from the NCAA and Mountain West Conference, who have panels scheduled to hold important meetings.

Welcome to Day 146 of college sports held hostage by COVID-19, a point where “if” and “when” remain the operative words and things can be as clear as the waters of the Ala Wai.

The NCAA’s highest governance body, its Board of Governors, was supposed to have ruled on Tuesday whether to cancel its fall sports championships (except the Football Bowl Subdivision, which is controlled by the College Football Playoff).

But the 25 members, who punted on a decision last month not wishing to incur the wrath of the potentially rebellious Power Five conferences, did not vote Tuesday, either. They are expected to reconvene today and may punt yet again, choosing to let its disparate classifications, the FBS, Football Championship Subdivision, Division II and Division III make their own calls.

Meanwhile, the Mountain West Conference Board of Directors, which is composed of presidents from each of the 12 football-playing members, is scheduled to meet today and the hope has been that a decision on the conference’s football format, if there is to be one, will finally be forthcoming.

The session is to “review decisions by (the) NCAA and continue its COVID-19 related considerations,” UH athletic director David Matlin said in a text.

MWC teams have lost 20 games due to cancellations of other conferences, leaving its members with schedules that currently contain from nine to 11 games. (UH has 10).

So far, the MWC and the rest of the Group of Five conferences have been content to watch the Power Five conferences sort out their scheduling parameters and review the COVID-19 case trends. A 10-game, conference-only schedule is, so far, the favored format by the Power Five conferences.

But with today marking the one-month mark from when some of its teams are scheduled to open their seasons, the push is on for the conference to provide a framework. The Sun Belt Conference made its move Tuesday, declaring an eight-game conference season but permitting its members to play a full 12-game slate, if they choose, leaving just the MWC, Mid-American and American Athletic conferences without announced plans.

The MWC normally plays an eight-game schedule and figures it needs to play at least that many to satisfy major terms of its new TV contract with Fox and CBS, no small consideration in a season that if it is played at all may be sans fans.

The MWC could expand to a 10- or 11-game game, all-conference schedule, but an eight-game league schedule plus two or three nonconference games would be better suited to members such as Air Force, which has traditional games with Army and Navy the Falcons would like to hang onto.

But, then, as Dr. Anthony Fauci reminds us, while it is good to have a plan, ultimately, it is the virus that dictates what can or cannot be played and when.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.