Tag: Greg Sankey

Greg Sankey: Concern about football season is ‘high to very high’

The past couple days have cast more doubt about the 2020 college football season. While the coronavirus pandemic has delayed parts of college football the biggest impact, to date, occurred earlier this week.

The past couple days have cast more doubt about the 2020 college football season. While the coronavirus pandemic has delayed parts of college football the biggest impact, to date, occurred earlier this week.

Both the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences announced they will only play conference games this season. In addition, the Ivy League, who was the first conference to cancel their basketball tournament when this all began, pushed their season to the spring.

With these cancellations’ other conferences schedules have been impacted and has created even more questions about the viability of a season.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey joined Marty Smith and Ryan McGee on Saturday morning’s episode of their show. Sankey said his concern about having a 2020 football season is, “high to very high,” and that “we are running out of time to correct and get things right.”

“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.”

After his comments made the rounds, he took to Twitter to respond.

Sankey also reiterated that the SEC’s deadline on a decision remains late July and every day gives them more information before they make their decision.

“That’s why I don’t feel any pressure because of somebody else’s decisions,” Sankey said. “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.

“The reality right now is the trends in our region, and in our nation, are not in the positive direction for being able to have normal experiences.”

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.

[lawrence-related id=18186,18167,18142,18120,18106]

Expect the SEC and other collegiate conferences to follow the Big 10’s lead

Any reasonable person has known for some time that if college football happens this fall it will look drastically different than ever before

Any reasonable person has known for some time now that should a college football season occur this fall, it will look drastically different than any other season we’ve ever seen. The only question was, how so?

The first domino in answering that question fell Thursday afternoon, as the Big 10 announced that it would be scrapping all scheduled nonconference games and moving to a conference-only football schedule.

Not only does this alter the schedules of Big 10 teams, but also every team that was scheduled to play a Big 10 team in non-conference play. As a result, it’s just a matter of time until the rest of the FBS makes the same call.

The PAC 12 has been reportedly considering doing the same for months now, and according to Stadium’s Brett McMurphy, the ACC is likely to move to a conference-only schedule, as well.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said that the league will wait as long as possible to make final decisions but that it will also discuss the possibility of eliminating nonconference games.

These are important first steps from the Power Five, which until now hasn’t taken nearly as proactive a course as, for instance, the NBA has. But this also feels like an abrupt turn in strategy.

Just weeks ago, Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith suggested that they could put 40-50,000 fans in the stadium. On Thursday, his tone changed drastically.

“I am very concerned,” Smith said, when asked about playing fall sports in general. “I used to be cautiously optimistic, but I’m not even there now. When you look at our trajectory with the virus, we are either the worst country or one of the worst. We wanted September available to use to provide flexibility and control to handle disruptions.”

The Big 10’s announcement was less of a proactive step than it was a scramble. College football waited too long to take concrete steps to ensure the season could be conducted safely, and now the entire season is jeopardized.

[lawrence-related id=17447]

Most, if not all, Power Five leagues will do the same thing the Big 10 did. Most Group of Five leagues will, as well. But it’s not going to save the season.

Moving to a conference-only schedule is the last gasp from college sports administrators realizing the error of their ways. Because, though clearly a step in the right direction, nixing nonconference games isn’t the answer.

Sure, it keeps programs’ travel generally region-locked, but at this point, with over 3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, spreading the disease to new places isn’t really the concern. The concern is keeping the thousands of players, coaches and personnel safe while somehow limiting collateral in the travel process. A conference-only schedule doesn’t begin to solve all of these problems.

There’s only one answer: delaying the season.

Right now, college football is setting itself up for a disaster. Administrators are either too stubborn or too invested to see the writing on the wall, and they’re going to create a massive headache for themselves.

Barring something unforeseen changing in the next month and a half, outbreaks will be an inevitability this fall. When that happens, the season will be stopped and either canceled or postponed.

Assuming this is the case, college football has two options: Delay the start of the season with the hope that a more normal season is possible later on, or devise a complicated plan for a fall start that will more likely than not fail, resulting in a delayed season anyway but with the added hurdle of dealing with a restart instead of just a delayed start.

The former option is, in my opinion, clearly superior. But it seems that those in power are more interested in the latter. When that comes to pass, the months wasted arguing about precisely how many fans can safely be shoved into metal bleachers will be all the more damning.

[lawrence-related id=17685,17201,16160,13722]

Report: SEC to discuss conference-only schedule

The SEC might follow in the footsteps of other conferences.

After the Big Ten and reportedly the ACC have decided to go to conference-only schedules for the 2020 football season, news broke on Thursday evening that the SEC will discuss taking the same course of action.

Per Brandon Marcello:

The Southeastern Conference might prove to be the final holdout as it attempts to wait as long as possible before making a decision on potentially changing its schedule, 247Sports has learned. The conference is in no hurry to follow the lead of the Big Ten, which surprised Power 5 conference commissioners with its announcement Thursday afternoon, but times are changing — and scheduling tweaks appear to be inevitable.

The SEC is not scheduled to discuss a plan to potentially move to conference-only games until next week, a person familiar with discussions in the conference office tells 247Sports. That timeline may be accelerated after the Big Ten’s surprise announcement Thursday, but the plan is for athletics directors to discuss the logistics of a conference-only schedule next week.

Discussions will include an eight- to 10-game schedule in the SEC, though no final decision was expected to be reached at the meeting. The Big Ten’s decision, however, may change that. Publicly, the SEC remains steady with its plan to wait until late July or early August to make any decisions on the upcoming football season, which is threatened by the novel coronavirus COVID-19.

The SEC’s head coaches conducted a meeting with conference administrators, including commissioner Greg Sankey, on Thursday morning and were told at the time the conference will wait as long as possible before making any decisions on the football season, including whether to start on time or move to a conference-only schedule, a person involved in the call told 247Sports.

Power 5 administrator on college football starting on time: ‘Everyone is pessimistic’

One Power 5 administrator says everyone is not exactly sure that college football will happen on time this fall.

On Wednesday, the Ivy League announced that it will not be holding any fall events. It seems that might be the case for more conferences to come, per 247Sports’ Brandon Marcello.

“Everyone is pessimistic,” in regards to an on-time start to the season, one Power 5 administrator told 247Sports this week.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still hitting parts of the nation, including the Southeast, hard, the idea that playing college football this fall is becoming one less that seems reasonable.

“We said from the onset of this pandemic that circumstances around the virus would guide our decision-making, and it is clear recent developments related to COVID-19 have not been trending in the right direction,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “There are important decisions to be made in the coming weeks and by late July there should be more clarity about the fall season. In the meantime, our athletics programs will continue to effectively manage the health and safety of our student-athletes as they continue voluntary activities on their respective campuses.”

From Marcello:

“Several conferences will utilize as much time as possible before making decisions throughout the fall. The SEC is expected to make a decision on whether to continue the season as planned in late July or early August, but they are not expected to entertain a full cancellation of fall sports as early as August, a source said. Most Power 5 conferences are willing to wait until the 11th hour and re-evaluate circumstances on a week-to-week basis through the fall, though many within the conference offices, particularly in the ACC, Pac-12 and SEC, have questioned the logistics of keeping players on campus if the season is delayed more than once.

“As it relates to thresholds of numbers of teams to conduct a season, we have modeled out many different scenarios for conducting a season but have not set thresholds in this regard,” Larry Scott said of the Pac-12

Meanwhile, on the ground, FBS schools continue to fight the virus on campuses that resemble ghost towns without student populations. Some athletic programs have been successful maintaining a bubble (Notre Dame has one positive test among 252 COVID-19 tests conducted within its athletics department since mid-June) while others shut down team activities (Kansas, Kansas State, Houston and Boise State) amid small outbreaks.

Optimism ebbs and flows.

“It depends on the week,” said a Power 5 head coach requesting anonymity. “I’m trying to stay positive and keep our guys safe and healthy right now.””

The upcoming weeks are going to be extremely important for whether we see our favorite teams take the field on time in September.

AD McGarity ‘planning for a full house’ for 2020 UGA football games

Georgia AD Greg McGarity went on 92.9 The Game’s morning show and discussed allowing fans into UGA football games this fall.

University of Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity went on 92.9 The Game’s morning show on Tuesday and discussed allowing fans into football games this fall.

Per 92.9 The Game’s Mike Conti

“We’re planning for a full house. Is that realistic? Time will tell,” McGarity said. “We have several internal documents ready to activate, but we don’t want to go public, especially in May.”

McGarity spoke just a few days after the SEC’s vote which allowed athletes to use on-campus facilities starting June 8, which followed the NCAA Division 1 Council’s decision last week to lift its restriction on workouts starting June 1.

It looks as if we are on the road to a 2020 college football season and McGarity thinks that, not only will there be football, there will be fans in attendance as well.

But, as he said, is that realistic?

From what we know about COVID-19 and the restrictions on crowds that are in place, it may be too early to get our hopes up.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said:

“For us to have our football season our universities have to re-engage in a normal operating pattern.”

Once universities begin to fully-reopen is when we should find out if there is a realistic possibility for fans to be in attendance at college football games this fall.

Until then, let’s enjoy the fact that athletes are allowed back on campuses and it looks like football, with or without fans, will at least be played.

SEC media days remain ‘full steam ahead’ in July

2020 SEC media days.

BIRMINGHAM — Southeastern Conference media days is scheduled to take place July 13-16 at the College Football Hall of Fame and Omni Atlanta Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, Ga.

With the coronavirus pandemic ongoing and the SEC canceling all spring sports for the remainder of the 2019-20 athletic calendar, media days could potentially be postponed or canceled.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey discussed if media days remain scheduled to take place this July in Atlanta.

“I’m going to be half-full right now and say we’re full steam ahead on our Atlanta planning for media days,” Sankey said during a teleconference Wednesday. “Last Thursday morning, I was full steam ahead on planning a basketball tournament and was disrupted.

“So we’re going to prepare for disruption, but we’re going to plan as if, in July, we’ll have the Media Days opportunity as scheduled, and that’s the best answer I can give at this moment.”

2020 SEC media days schedule

MONDAY, July 13

Florida – Dan Mullen

LSU – Ed Orgeron

Missouri – Eliah Drinkwitz

TUESDAY, July 14

Georgia – Kirby Smart

Kentucky – Mark Stoops

Ole Miss – Lane Kiffin

Vanderbilt – Derek Mason

WEDNESDAY, July 15

Alabama – Nick Saban

Arkansas – Sam Pittman

Mississippi State – Mike Leach

Tennessee – Jeremy Pruitt

THURSDAY, July 16

Auburn – Gus Malzahn

South Carolina – Will Muschamp

Texas A&M – Jimbo Fisher

Spring football: Greg Sankey not ‘overly optimistic about the return to practice’

Greg Sankey not overly optimistic about the return to practice.

BIRMINGHAM — The Southeastern Conference announced March 17 that all spring football games will be canceled and there will not be any pro days conducted by SEC institutions.

In addition, the SEC announced that all regular season conference and non-conference competitions are canceled for the remainder of the 2019-20 athletic year.

453634DB-F8B9-4764-9A47-A2E4E184AF22
Photo by Dan Harralson, Vols Wire

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey took part in a teleconference Wednesday to discuss athletics during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sankey mentioned that although spring football games have been canceled, practices could still happen.

“It does not apply to spring practices at this time, and I think that’s the important qualifying phrase,” Sankey said. “We have said, no athletic activities through April 15.  That doesn’t mean we’ll be back to normal or to practice activities April 16, it was just a date that allows our administrators to communicate with our coaches, our coaches with their student athletes, has resulted in – in the departures from campus.

“If you look at the national public messaging about no gatherings above 50, (it is) certainly difficult to conduct any football practice under that limitation, and even with smaller numbers, it had been communicated 10, as often referenced, thereby making it impossible into May, has been stated. So, I’m not going to be overly optimistic about the return to practice.  We haven’t fully foreclosed that opportunity, but I think practically that window’s pretty narrow.”

Tennessee kicked off spring football practices March 10. The Vols took part in its second practice March 12 before spring break and the SEC halting activities until at least April 15.

Greg Sankey is “optimistic about playing the 2020 football season”

On Wednesday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey had a media conference call in which he addressed many questions

This week, the SEC had to make many hard decisions including cancelling all regular-season conference and non-conference competitions, all remaining SEC championship events, spring football games, and pro days. They also noted that other athletics activities, including team and individual practices, meetings and other organized gatherings, whether required or voluntary, remain suspended through at least April 15.

On Wednesday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey had a media conference call in which he addressed many questions, especially regarding the 2020 college football season.

Regarding the 2020 football season, here is what Sankey had to say when asked about the season started in September:

“That’s my focus. I’m a half-full perspective kind of a person so I have optimism. We have taken measures as have our colleague conferences. At this time, if I read those health leaders, they say we are going to have a period of time and we’ll see what happens with the growth of these cases and we’ll make decisions down the road.”

Sankey also addressed the issue of spring practice:

“I’m confident that, if we’re not able to practice further this spring, I’m confident we’ll be seeking opportunities to be sure our teams are adequately prepared heading into the season.” The public health realities will dictate how that would look.

I’m not going to be overly optimistic about the return to practice. We haven’t fully closed that opportunity but I think practically that window is pretty narrow.”

Clearly, there are still decisions that have to be made. Although spring practices may not happen, Sankey is confident the 2020 season will happen as planned.

Roll Tide Wire will keep you updated with the latest.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Twitter reacts as SEC cancels G-Day, all SEC spring scrimmages

The SEC announced that it will be cancelling all spring scrimmages, including Georgia football’s G-Day

Amid concerns regarding COVID-19, the Southeastern Conference has canceled play for all remaining winter and spring sports.

This includes out-of conference contests, SEC championship tournaments, and each school’s spring football scrimmage. No football program will host a pro day for its NFL prospects.

For college football fans, they kept their fingers crossed in hopes that spring games would be played as scheduled. However, we all knew that was a long shot.

At the end of the day, it’s just a scrimmage. But for the players, fans and coaches, oftentimes it’s much more than that.

For some fans, spring games are the only Georgia games they can attend in person, given the free admission into the event.

For the coaches, the spring scrimmage is not terribly instrumental in determining depth charts as they have multiple scrimmages throughout the offseason. But what they will be missing out on is an opportunity to get big-time recruits on campus and show them a good time. On the bright side, it’s an even playing field across the conference seeing as how all spring games have been called off.

And for a large number of the players, this was going to be their final G-Day, an event that many of them look forward to. It’s also a chance for the freshmen to begin making a name for themselves among the DawgNation. That will have to wait until fall.

With the SEC confirming what we had all suspected for the last week, Georgia fans took to Twitter to express their sadness over the situation.