Although an official start date has not been announced, the Florida State football team is expected to soon begin participating in voluntary workouts. And there are reports that the NCAA is considering approval of an expanded six-week preseason camp, which would provide extra practice time to schools that saw their spring sessions cut short by the coronavirus pandemic.

Florida State is one of those programs. The Seminoles practiced just three times in the spring before everything came screeching to a halt.

In our latest "Hot Topics" conversation, Warchant's Gene Williams, Ira Schoffel, Corey Clark and Aslan Hajivandi discuss how a program like FSU, with a first-year head coach, might be affected by the changes in scheduling, compared to teams that are already rolling and have had systems in place for years. We also discuss what those two additional weeks of preseason might mean for the Seminoles, and how they might be handled.

Please read our comments below and also watch our debate in this video for the full discussion.

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This is the question we presented to our staff:

Q: With spring practice being cut short for most schools, do you think that will widen the gap between the more successful programs and the ones that are struggling and/or are bringing in new coaches? Or could it possibly level the playing field a bit? Also, there is talk that the NCAA might extend preseason camp to six weeks. What impact would that have on this conversation?

COREY: I don't think it will level the playing field. At least not at a place like Florida State, which has a brand-new coaching staff and a brand-new strength staff.

A program that has stability -- same scheme, same playbook, same coaches -- should obviously have a bit of an advantage in a situation like this. Not only do they not have to worry as much about players knowing their systems, but they also know their players so much better.

Part of the spring for a new staff is getting acclimated with your current roster, knowing strengths and weaknesses of each player, understanding who you can count on and who you can't. These FSU coaches never really got that opportunity. So not only will they have to continue to install their systems when practice resumes, they'll also have to continue to evaluate and figure out the depth chart. That's always the case in preseason practice anyway, but it will be much more amplified this time around.

Which leads into the final question: Yes, if the NCAA extends preseason camp to six weeks, that would be a huge benefit for FSU. Because then you could use those two extra weeks as a pseudo-spring practice, giving the coaches extra time to figure out what exactly they have on their roster and who can be counted on to be a major contributor. So they won't be starting the actual preseason practice blind in that regard.

IRA: Yeah, Corey touched on my biggest concerns about missing the spring. It's not necessarily about installing the schemes and teaching the concepts and terminology -- all of that started in meetings before the spring and has continued throughout the summer via Zoom. I don't expect FSU's players to be confused about the schemes or their individual responsibilities when preseason camp begins ... whenever preseason camp begins.