Tag: conference-only

LSU, UGA stand in way of Florida Gators’ path to 2020 SEC football glory

The full football schedule for the SEC this fall was announced Monday night on a live broadcast by the SEC Network.

The full football schedule for the SEC this fall was announced Monday night on a live broadcast by the SEC Network.

Earlier in the day, the league released the full first-week schedule, including UF’s season opener on Sep. 26, when the Gators will travel to Oxford, Ms., for the first time since 2007.

Among the highlights of Florida’s full schedule is a Week 3 road match in College Station against Texas A&M followed by a home fixture the following weekend against defending national champion LSU.

Additionally, the Gators won’t be playing Georgia on Halloween weekend as they usually do. Both teams are on a bye that weekend, and they will compete at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville the following weekend on Nov. 7.

One of the changes made to the format of the schedule to accommodate the added two games is the extension of the regular season to the first weekend of December. Though in-state rivalry games, such as the Iron and Egg Bowls, will still take place on Thanksgiving weekend, those matchups will not conclude the regular season for those schools.

On Dec. 5, the Gators travel to Knoxville, Tn., to complete the regular season against Tennessee. It will be the first time Florida has played the Volunteers in December since 2001, when the game was delayed as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The full schedule is listed below. All kickoff times are still TBD.

Week 1 – Sept. 26 at Ole Miss

Week 2 – Oct. 3 vs. South Carolina

Week 3 – Oct. 10 at Texas A&M

Week 4 – Oct. 17 vs. LSU

Week 5 – Oct. 24 vs. Missouri

Week 6 – Bye

Week 7 – Nov. 7 vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville)

Week 8 – Nov. 14 vs. Arkansas

Week 9 – Nov. 21 at Vanderbilt

Week 10 – Nov. 28 vs. Kentucky

Week 11 – Dec. 5 at Tennessee

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Gators News: July 31, 2020

Another week is nearly in the books, but none have been nearly as eventful as this past week with big news both in the college and pros.

Another week is nearly in the books, but none have been nearly as eventful as this past week in the sports world since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, with big news happening both in the collegiate and professional ranks.

In college football news, the Southeastern Conference finally announced that it will play out a 10-game, conference-only schedule this fall in response to other major conferences making similar arrangements. While the exact lineup of games has not yet been listed, one of the glaring voids on the calendar for Gators fans is the loss of the Florida State rivalry game in 2020 — the first time since 1958 that the two schools will not face each other on the gridiron.

As has been mentioned in these Gators News reports over the past few days, Major League Baseball continues to struggle with its abbreviated 60-game season as the novel coronavirus continues to rear its ugly head in clusters around the league, with the St. Louis Cardinals the latest team falling victim to multiple positive tests.

However, the National Basketball Association re-launched its season yesterday from its “bubble” at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex to a great deal of fanfare, as the league has managed to avoid the mishaps that have befallen MLB with its novel approach to playing out its games. While time will tell how well it works, from the looks of it, the NBA is the only organization to get things right in the battle against COVID-19.

 

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SEC announces plan to play 10-game conference-only football schedule

The SEC announced that its member schools will adhere to a 10-game, conference-only schedule for the upcoming 2020 football season.

The Southeastern Conference announced on Thursday that its member schools will adhere to a 10-game, conference-only schedule for the upcoming 2020 football season beginning on Sept. 26.

From the press release:

The 2020 SEC football season will be comprised of a 10-game Conference-only schedule and the SEC Football Championship Game will be played December 19 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, rescheduled from the original date of December 5. The schedule will include one mid-season open date for each school and an open date on December 12 for all schools.

“This new plan for a football schedule is consistent with the educational goals of our universities to allow for the safe and orderly return to campus of their student populations and to provide a healthy learning environment during these unique circumstances presented by the COVID-19 virus,” Sankey said.  “This new schedule supports the safety measures that are being taken by each of our institutions to ensure the health of our campus communities.”

This action was taken following extensive discussions and thorough deliberation among the SEC’s Presidents and Chancellors, Athletics Directors, Conference Office staff, and medical advisors, led by the SEC’s Return to Activity and Medical Guidance Task Force.

“After careful consideration of the public health indicators in our region and following advice of our medical advisors, we have determined that this is the best course of action to prepare for a safe and healthy return to competition for SEC student-athletes, coaches and others associated with our sports programs,” said Sankey.

The decision to limit competition to Conference-only opponents and rescheduling the SEC Championship Game is based on the need for maximum flexibility in making any necessary scheduling adjustments while reacting to developments around the pandemic and continued advice from medical professionals.

“We believe these schedule adjustments offer the best opportunity to complete a full season by giving us the ability to adapt to the fluid nature of the virus and the flexibility to adjust schedules as necessary if disruptions occur,” Sankey said.  “It is regrettable that some of our traditional non-conference rivalries cannot take place in 2020 under this plan, but these are unique, and hopefully temporary, circumstances that call for unconventional measures.”

The rescheduled start to the season will allow the SEC to continue to monitor health trends across its 11-state footprint, as well as monitor developments in technology around mitigation and treatment of the virus, including:

– Trends in public health indicators throughout the SEC’s 11-state footprint, including positive cases of COVID-19, hospitalizations and recovery statistics

– State, local and campus heath directives, including restrictions on gatherings, isolation requirements for travelers, and other health and travel restrictions

– Continued development of risk mitigation strategies

– Continued advancement in COVID-19 testing reliability and availability

– Continued evolution of time-based strategies for resuming activities after positive test results, including contact tracing, isolation and quarantine requirements

– Observation of successes and challenges presented by return to competition in other sports

A revised schedule for the 2020 SEC football season will be announced at a later date following approval by the Conference’s athletics directors.

Further decisions regarding safety standards related to athletics events, tailgating and other game day activities, including social distancing, face covering and other health measures consistent with CDC, state and local guidelines, will be announced at a later date.

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Gators News: July 16, 2020

The main story this week for Gators fans has been the SEC’s response to the Big 10’s and the PAC-12’s decision to play conference-only games

Thursday is here again and as we cruise towards the weekend things remain pretty weird in the sports world thanks to the COVID-19 outbreak and the varying ways both the public and athletic leagues have responded to it.

The main story this week for Gators fans has been the Southeastern Conference’s response to the Big 10’s and the PAC-12’s decision to limit its conference schedules within the confines of its member ranks, which could be something of a compromise at this point. The SEC has suggested a 10-game schedule this season consisting of eight intra-conference games and two non-conference games among three models, including an eight-game SEC-only plan and a nine or 10-game schedule that would include at least one scheduled Power 5 matchup.

Here is the rest of the news from the Gator Nation.

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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey’s concern for the season is ‘high to very high’

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said he is concerned about the prospect of playing football in the fall during an interview on ESPN Radio.

In light of rising COVID-19 cases across the south and decisions made by the Big 10 and PAC 12 over the last several days to move to conference-only football schedules this fall, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said he is concerned about the prospect of playing football in the fall during an interview on the ESPN Radio show Marty & McGee on Saturday morning.

“We put a medical advisory group together in early April with the question, ‘What do we have to do to get back to activity?’ and they’ve been a big part of the conversation,” Sankey said. “But the direct reality is not good and the notion that we’ve politicized medical guidance of distancing, and breathing masks, and hand sanitization, ventilation of being outside, being careful where you are in buildings. There’s some very clear advice about — you can’t mitigate and eliminate every risk, but how do you minimize the risk? … We are running out of time to correct and get things right, and as a society we owe it to each other to be as healthy as we can be.”

Sankey pointed out that since what one league does affects every other league, the decisions made by two of the Power Five conferences will impact the SEC’s decision-making. But he also said the league will cater to the individual needs of its member institutions above all else.

“That literally is playing out in front of us every day,” Sankey said. “That’s why I don’t feel any pressure because of somebody else’s decisions. We’re trying to make the right decisions for us, for the Southeastern Conference. It does have an impact because I’ve said publicly we’re all linked nationally, so when other people make decisions, yup, there’s an impact, but also we’re going to look at our situation and make a decision that’s appropriate for the Southeastern Conference and most importantly for the health of our student-athletes.”

“What I’ve tried to do is both keep a focus on what’s ahead but provide reality, which has been I’m going to focus on preparing to play the season as scheduled but acknowledge the circumstances around coronavirus are going to guide us in that decision-making,” Sankey said. “And the reality right now is the trends in our region, in our nation, are not in the positive direction for being able to have normal experiences.”

In the interview, Sankey confirmed that the late July deadline for final decisions regarding the season hasn’t changed and that he believes it beneficial to wait as long as possible before making an informed decision. The other two Power Five conferences, the ACC and Big 12, have both also said that they will wait until the end of the month to make decisions about scheduling.

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Pac-12 Announces Conference-Only Football Schedule

The news drops, as expected.

In a move which was expected, following the Big Ten’s announcement of conference-only scheduling and the Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach making this initial report on Thursday, the Pac-12 Conference did indeed announce on Friday a move to a conference-only schedule for the upcoming 2020 football season. The likelihood of the adjusted plan was again reported by Auerbach on Friday afternoon.

The Pac-12 then made the announcement later in the day:

Let’s start with a necessary word of caution: Whether the conference actually plays a football schedule at all this fall remains up in the air following this move.

Trojans Wire explored the feasibility of a conference-only schedule in an article Thursday. It doesn’t seem that a conference-only schedule is going to prevent infections at a rate lower than a full schedule would allow. The theory behind a conference-only schedule is that it makes it a bit easier to track and trace, and to generally handle a number of logistical details, but one has to wonder if that’s really the case when taking into account the massive geographical expanse covered by the Pac-12 Conference.

The Pac-12 Conference covers six states, reaching as far north as Pullman, Washington, as far east as Boulder, Colorado, and as south as Tucson, Arizona. There’s a lot of travel and a number of precautions to take in the league. The Pac-12, occupying the Western United States, is spread out in ways most other conferences aren’t. Lots of SEC, ACC, and Big Ten teams coexist in relatively close proximity. Some schools in those Power Five conferences must fly long distances to play each other, but the Pac-12 has more long commutes for each of its member schools.

The Oregon schools and the Washington schools aren’t too far apart; the same goes for the Los Angeles schools and the Arizona schools… but in terms of all 12 schools traveling to other game sites, there aren’t as many short hops as there are in other Power Five leagues. It’s quite an undertaking and seems a difficult task to pull off.

If this allows the conference a better shot at handling these issues, I’m all for the Pac-12 playing a conference-only schedule. My suspicion, however, is that we will see this conversation be revisited fairly soon. One FCS league has already ditched fall football, so it wouldn’t be too shocking to see other leagues follow suit.

Another aspect to consider here is the financial cost of traveling these distances in an economic downturn. At a time when schools, including Stanford in the Pac-12, are cutting large swaths of sports, traveling all over the West Coast might not be the most prudent financial decision. It’s certainly difficult to justify when other students are being told their entire worlds are about to change. Any way you slice it, playing college football in the fall is going to be a chore. Whatever decisions these schools take should have athlete safety at the top of the priority list.

Big Ten opts for conference-only football schedule this coming fall

The decision by the Big Ten is expected to create a domino effect throughout the college football landscape as others are assured to follow.

The Big Ten athletic conference announced on Thursday that its member schools will play a conference-only schedule for the upcoming 2020 football season.

Word of the decision leaked earlier in the day when The Athletic’s college football senior writer Nicole Auerbach revealed the news on Twitter. USA TODAY Sports later corroborated the report with multiple people who have intimate knowledge of the decision.

The full press release from the conference is included below.

We are facing uncertain and unprecedented times, and the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes, coaches, game officials, and others associated with our sports programs and campuses remain our number one priority.

To that end, the Big Ten Conference announced today that if the Conference is able to participate in fall sports (men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball) based on medical advice, it will move to Conference-only schedules in those sports. Details for these sports will be released at a later date, while decisions on sports not listed above will continue to be evaluated. By limiting competition to other Big Ten institutions, the Conference will have the greatest flexibility to adjust its own operations throughout the season and make quick decisions in real-time based on the most current evolving medical advice and the fluid nature of the pandemic.

This decision was made following many thoughtful conversations over several months between the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors, Directors of Athletics, Conference Office staff, and medical experts including the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee.

In addition, the Conference announced that summer athletic activities will continue to be voluntary in all sports currently permitted to engage in such activities. Furthermore, Big Ten student-athletes who choose not to participate in intercollegiate athletics at any time during the summer and/or the 2020-21 academic year due to concerns about COVID-19 will continue to have their scholarship honored by their institution and will remain in good standing with their team.

While Big Ten member institutions continue to rely on the most up-to-date medical information to establish the best protocols for voluntary workouts on their campuses, in compliance with local and state regulations, the Conference is working with the Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee to finalize Conference-wide protocols.

As we continue to focus on how to play this season in a safe and responsible way, based on the best advice of medical experts, we are also prepared not to play in order to ensure the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes should the circumstances so dictate.

The absence of non-conference opponents on a Power Five league schedule could have a big impact on smaller programs that rely on “guarantee games” at major schools for a big part of the athletic budget. It is unclear whether those contracts would call for a penalty payment.

The decision by the Big Ten is expected to create a domino effect throughout the college football landscape, as other conferences are almost assured to follow in the conference’s footsteps. The first league expected to follow suit is the Pac-12, which Auerbach reported in a later tweet is expected to move to a conference-only schedule in the coming days. Stadium Network college football insider Brett McMurphy also reported that the ACC is also strongly considering the change.

At best, the 2020 season will be a shadow of the sport that brings college communities together every fall. However, the most likely outcome at this point is that fans will be lucky if any sports are played at all.

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