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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Josh Fenton should be in Naples, Fla., right now.

The National Collegiate Hockey Conference commissioner should be running the league through its annual meetings, reviewing the past season and looking forward to the next one.

Instead, he's holed up at his home in Colorado Springs due to the coronavirus outbreak that has shut down the sporting world, preparing to run the league-wide meetings through Zoom beginning Friday, April 24, and ending next week.

Fenton is remaining optimistic about the chances for a college hockey season in 2020-21, but he's also preparing the league for different scenarios that could arise, depending on the status of the global pandemic.

"We're optimistic that the 2020-21 season can be played as already scheduled," Fenton said. "Having said that, we in the conference office are putting together alternative plans — both financial and scheduling options.

"Until we have some clarity on what the impact of the virus is across the country, and certainly in areas where NCHC members are located, what decisions will come regarding in-person learning at colleges and universities across the country, any and all scheduling options are probably on the table."

Fenton didn't get into any specifics on scheduling options that were being discussed among league members, but one scenario surely is the possibility that sports don't begin until the second semester. If students aren't allowed on campuses during the first semester, there's a chance sports teams won't be allowed, either.

When asked whether it was feasible financially for the NCHC to have a season if fans aren't allowed to attend, Fenton said: "Fans are a huge part of college athletics and we want to embrace fans and we want fans to take part in athletic competitions. The hypothetical of fans not being able to attend games ... obviously, we found ourselves in that position over the last month in college hockey. It's a little too early to determine, ultimately, what that structure would look like.

"With fans or without fans, we're going to take guidance and direction from health experts and health officials from the local, state and federal level to make sure health and safety is of the upmost priority."

Fenton said he expected the coronavirus to dominate the talks at the league's virtual meetings, which will begin with the faculty athletic reps Friday. The coaches will meet Monday. The athletic directors and head coaches will meet Tuesday, and the athletic directors and faculty athletic reps will meet Wednesday.

"We've condensed the time," Fenton said of the meetings. "We're not going to be on a Zoom session the entire day. If we were meeting in person, we'd be together from 8 a.m. until 5 or 5:30 p.m. We're not going to have a Zoom call that long. It's going to be two or three hours, depending on the meeting.

"We're going to be focused on the highest-priority topics. Some of the things we may have discussed in person, we may have to follow up on after the fact. If we need to, we can schedule another video conference."

The league makes most of its revenue from playoff games — both best-of-three, first-round series and the NCHC Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center.

Because the season was called off before those events, the league took a significant hit financially.

But the NCHC has been preparing for potential disastrous years.

When the league started up, it created a reserve account. It is believed the league retains an entire year of operating expenses in the reserve account, though Fenton has declined to state the exact dollar figure. Previous tax filings show the reserve account neared $2 million.

"Certainly, it was a difficult financial year," Fenton said. "The positive thing is that the Board of Directors and Athletic Council made a strategic move six years ago to create a reserve account. The reserve account has been built up the past six to six-and-a-half years. We have a strong and healthy balance sheet. That strong balance sheet will allow us to weather the storm of 2020 and the cancellation of the tournament to be in fine position."