COLUMBUS, Ohio – A huge step took place on Wednesday as the Division I Council voted to approve voluntary work for football and both men's and women's basketball as the college sports world takes a critical first step back toward competition.

It is just a first step, the first in a long, long race.

But a critical one as now it appears that Ohio State will be able to have the start of voluntary workouts for its football team starting on June 8th both at the WHAC and the Schumaker Complex.

There is plenty to parcel out of that whole conversation, how that return will look, how players will be monitored and many other things. But this also leads to a larger picture of where college football may be at for the 2020 season. The first week of September is still several months away but it is getting closer with each passing day and week.

RELATED: Yahoo Sports reports Division-I Council approves voluntary workouts for three sports

For many, the conversation has graduated from “if” there will be football to “what” will football look like and “how many” might be in the stands for games, if any.

Ohio State’s Director of Athletics, Gene Smith, was first against the idea of having football without fans in the stands but as more and more information becomes available and time goes by, he has had to really look at all scenarios that could be in play.

“I struggled with it at the beginning,” Smith said of the thought of no fans in the stands for games. “As I continue to have conversations, I am becoming more comfortable with the idea if that is where we end up, and I am optimistic that we won’t, if we do end up there, we can accommodate it.”

Smith and his peers across the nation are having to come to terms with how best to reopen sports and resume athletic competitions but at the same time come to a decision if fans will be there to watch them real-time.

“Could we implement the current CDC guidelines, state guidelines around physical distancing and mask requirements and those types of things in an outdoor environment and have significantly less fans than what we are used to?” Smith said. “I think it is possible.

“I just feel like we have the talent, skill and space capacity to provide an opportunity for a certain number of fans to have access to our particular stadium. Of course, that would not be true across the country because of capacity. But I think we can get there.”

Of course, that would come at a fraction of what Ohio Stadium’s capacity is. This would not be a case of the stadium being half full, even a third full. Think smaller.

“We have played a little bit with the social distancing concept and we know that would probably take us down to south of 30,000 fans in the stands, actually closer to 20-22 (thousand),” Smith said.

UPDATE: Gene Smith went to social media after the publication of multiple pieces to state that the number of 20,000 to 22,000 fans would be on the low end but the number could be significantly higher if guidelines are relaxed between now and the start of a season.

That of course creates the question of who will get in and who will be left out.

Ohio State tickets can be a tough ticket to land under the best of circumstances. Yes, games like Bowling Green and Buffalo may be easier to find than many games, but just imagine the commotion trying to secure a ticket to the Michigan game on Senior Day.

How will that be determined, especially early in the season when this is all still a work in progress?

“We would obviously have to look at our point system for example that we have in place,” Smith said. “We do have a diversity of constituency throughout our stadium, so we have to make sure that we look at each individual group (with) faculty, staff, students, donors, Varsity O, parents of athletes, all of those different constituencies, media… we have to look at those and come up with some strategies within those groups.”

It would come as little shock there would be an emphasis on getting then family and guests of players in the stands as well as keeping the recruiting machine going on. But where do you draw the line in terms of how many donors get in versus students or former athletes or even the media.

All of those questions are still up in the air and with no guarantees that the season will go off as planned, a lot of this is academic.

But the prevailing winds lead most people to believe that there will be a season.

At least for some schools.

The Big Ten would like to see all 14 member institutions that field football teams to be able to play. But what happens if someone is unable to go?

Is this an all-for-one endeavor?

Maybe not.

“I personally feel like it could be worked out if someone is disenfranchised for whatever reason,” Smith said. “We should be able to find a way to not penalize all the schools because of whatever reason, a state decision or whatever. We should have as much flexibility to make sure we mitigate the damage to individual schools based upon where they are.”

We are no clearer to knowing if an Ohio State season will see non-conference games, especially a trip to Oregon. Teams like Bowling Green and Buffalo certainly need this Ohio State payout to make athletic budgets work out.

Maybe there will only be a Big Ten schedule of eight games, or nine, or even 10. From a logistical standpoint, that might be the easiest path, even if it is not as attractive on the surface.

“It would be easier for us to make sure that we have the safest environment for our student athletes if we just competed against Big Ten schools,” Smith said. “We are familiar with locker rooms, familiar with the hotels we are going to, we have familiarity with the travel operations we have to employ. Those are easier.”

The plan, one way or the other, is to have a national solution. Something that feeds into a level of consistency and would have defined criteria that could be in place for postseason selection.

But as Smith said, so much of these questions are speculative and honestly Smith and his fellow ADs are not to this point yet, they are living in the now.

One of the first big steps will be a vote to allow schools to reopen athletic facilities in June on a voluntary basis. If/once that happens, it will be on to the next step.

The accumulation of a lot of little steps will help cover an expansive amount of territory that needs to be covered between now and the start of any season.

This will be a marathon, not a sprint.