Tag: Greg Sankey

Report: SEC delays football fall camps, puts in stipulations

The season is set to begin the last weekend of September.

The 2020 SEC football season just got a little less traditional.

Per SI.com, the conference has delayed the beginning of fall camp until Aug. 17 and has put in some stipulations.

“As part of the plan, teams can practice 25 times over a 40-day period beginning on Aug. 17, sources tell Sports Illustrated. During that time, schools must adhere to the NCAA’s normal in-season football access time of 20 countable hours a week. Two days off each week are required. The new preseason plan expands the SEC’s practice window by 11 days, providing flexibility for more off days and potential COVID-19 related interruptions.”

This announcement comes on the heels of the conference deciding last Thursday to go to a 10-game, conference-only schedule. Many teams, including Auburn, were set to begin practice sometime before Aug. 17.

“Many SEC staffs were preparing to begin camp at their scheduled time this weekend. The league is allowing coaches to continue the current 20-hour per week model until Friday. From Friday through Aug. 16, staffs will be restricted to 11 hours a week of football or strength work related events (six hours for strength and five hours for football). Their walk-throughs must be conducted without equipment. That includes no footballs, helmets or pads. In this enhanced access period, Friday to Aug. 16, teams have been granted three extra hours for non-football related meetings.”

No matter how it is done, at least we will hopefully see some college football this fall.

SEC football players share concerns about playing amid COVID-19 pandemic, per report

Most SEC programs have been able to avoid widespread outbreaks of the coronavirus within their facilities; others have been less fortunate.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Josh Vitale of the Montgomery Advisor with USA TODAY Sports. 

After the Southeastern Conference decided last week to move forward with a 10-game, conference-only football schedule during the coronavirus pandemic, we didn’t hear much from players.

That changed Saturday, though not by the conference’s doing.

The Washington Post obtained audio of a conference call conducted Wednesday among SEC administrators including Commissioner Greg Sankey, medical advisers and members of the SEC Football Student-Athlete Leadership Council, during which the players expressed concerns about the upcoming season as COVID-19 cases continue to spike throughout the country.

So far, most SEC programs have been able to avoid widespread outbreaks of the novel coronavirus within their facilities. Programs in other areas of the country haven’t been as lucky — Michigan State and Rutgers recently decided to isolate their entire rosters after multiple positive tests.

The question Ole Miss linebacker MoMo Sanogo posed, according to The Post, was what happens when thousands of students return to campus for the fall semester? Sanogo said he has four classes per week, and if those classmates go to bars and parties, he could be at risk of being infected even if he doesn’t, even with smaller class sizes and required face masks.

One of the officials on the call told the 21-year-old “as un-fun as it sounds, the best thing that you can do is just try to encourage others to act more responsibly and not put yourself in those kinds of situations. I’m very comfortable with what we’ve done on campus. I’m concerned about what happens from 5 p.m. until 5 a.m.”

“There are going to be outbreaks,” another official said, according to The Post. “We’re going to have positive cases on every single team in the SEC. That’s a given. And we can’t prevent it.”

The SEC responded to The Post’s story with a statement Saturday:

“The SEC hosts videoconferences with the SEC Football Student-Athlete Leadership Council to engage in candid conversation, share information and develop greater understanding of issues important to our student-athletes. The calls are intended to be confidential …

“The information we gather while engaging with student-athletes helps inform Conference decisions and provides an opportunity to share information with our campus leaders to further enhance our continuing support of the student-athlete experience. The student-athletes on the call expressed appreciation for the honest dialogue, indicated the discussion was beneficial and requested a similar videoconference in the future.

“As we all work to adapt to the realities of COVID-19, we will continue to support the health of SEC student-athletes.”

Another player on the call, who did not identify himself, asked officials whether they knew what lasting health effects players might experience if they contract the virus.

“The problem is a lot of this we don’t know,” Ole Miss sports medicine physician Marshall Crowther said. He added that some people don’t have long-term complications, but acknowledged that there are growing concerns about how the virus affects people’s hearts.

“You guys have answered a lot of questions the best way that you guys could, and we really appreciate it. But as much as you guys don’t know … it’s just kind of not good enough,” Texas A&M linebacker Keeath Magee II said, per The Post.

“We want to play. We want to see football. We want to return to normal as much as possible. But it’s just that with all this uncertainty, all this stuff that’s still circulating in the air, y’all know it kind of leaves some of us still scratching my head. … I feel like the college campus is the one thing that you can’t control.”

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SEC issues statement following audio of players speaking about concern of safety reported

The SEC issued a statement after a piece by The Washington Post detailed that student-athletes were conference about their safety.

On Saturday, The Washington Post published a pretty eye-opening article on SEC student-athletes voicing their concern about their safety if a college football season would be played only for only to be told that COVID-19 cases on teams were a “given.”

From the article:

“There are going to be outbreaks,” one official told players on the call. (The official didn’t identify himself, and the SEC spokesman declined to identify him to The Post.) “We’re going to have cases on every single team in the SEC. That’s a given. And we can’t prevent it…”

The players were especially concerned with what happens once their universities reopen. When they returned for workouts this summer, their campuses were largely empty. Most of the people they interacted with were those inside their cloistered and regimented football programs, where regular testing and the potential ire of their powerful coaches made adherence to public health guidelines a must for many athletes.

MoMo Sanogo, a linebacker at the University of Mississippi, asked the officials on the call why his school planned to bring thousands of students to campus for fall classes. Sanogo said he has four classes per week, and he fears some of those classmates will go to bars and parties at night, then unknowingly infect football players during class.

The answer Sanogo received shed light on the pressure that university presidents, who rely on college football for prestige and revenue, face to reopen their campuses this fall, even as the pandemic surges. “It’s one of those things where if students don’t come back to campus, then the chances of having a football season are almost zero,” an official who did not identify himself said.

The official told Sanogo that class sizes would be smaller so students can sit six feet apart from one another, and that face coverings should help keep students safe. But he admitted the arrangement was “not fair” to athletes, who might take every precaution but still be infected by the students who don’t.

He suggested that Sanogo, 21, remind the people around him to behave responsibly. “As un-fun as it sounds,” the official said, “the best thing that you can do is just try to encourage others to act more responsibly and not put yourself in those kinds of situations. I’m very comfortable with what we’ve done on campus. I’m concerned about what happens from 5 p.m. until 5 a.m.”

Sanogo kept pushing. “How can y’all help us?” he asked. He referenced the concept of a “bubble,” the insular playing environments employed by pro basketball and ice hockey, and compared it with his bustling college campus. Another member of the task force told him that his mask would offer protection, and he could be a role model for others to wear one. She told him to sit at the back of classrooms and not engage in close conversations.

The officials’ uncertainty was not lost on Keeath Magee II, a Texas A&M linebacker, who wondered aloud whether starting the season with so many unanswered questions would be something the officials would come to regret.

“You guys have answered a lot of questions the best way you could, and we really appreciate it. But as much as you guys don’t know … it’s not good enough,” he said. “We want to play. We want to see football. We want to return to normal as much as possible. But it’s just that with all this uncertainty, all this stuff that’s still circulating in the air, y’all know it kind of leaves some of us still scratching my head. … I feel like the college campus is the one thing that you can’t control.”

On Saturday afternoon, the conference issued a statement on the video call along with what it was trying to accomplish.

The conference has still yet to provide answers on how they will help protect the student-athletes with the decision to play a conference-only schedule starting Sept. 26 approved.

Gators News: July 14, 2020

It looks like it is going to be a little longer before we know the fate of the Southeastern Conference’s 2020 fall season. 

Back when I was in elementary school, we used to sing this song in music class called “Today is Tuesday”. The chorus of the song went like this.

Today is Tuesday

Today is Tuesday

What a wonderful day!

To tell the truth, I never really agreed with that sentiment.

Personal anecdotes aside, we have taken the second step into another week and today things are not too much different than yesterday. While the Southeastern Conference’s athletic directors’ meeting took place yesterday, nothing definitive came as a result yet.

It looks like it is going to be a little longer before we know the fate of the SEC’s 2020 fall season.

Around the Swamp

It’s great to be a Florida Gator!

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SEC sets late July for decision on college football season

The head of the SEC and athletic directors met in Birmingham on Monday.

The next few weeks will be critical in whether or not we will see a SEC football season this fall and, on Monday, the people that help run the conference met in Birmingham to discuss the situation.

From the SEC statement:

“We had a productive meeting on Monday and engaged in discussions on a number of important issues that will contribute to critical decisions to be made in the weeks ahead,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. “The ability to personally interact over the course of an entire day contributed to the productivity of the meeting.”

The meeting marked the first in-person meeting of the Conference athletics directors since the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament in Nashville in March.  The athletics directors have met multiple times per week via videoconference since the discontinuation of athletic competition in March due to the pandemic.

“It is clear that current circumstances related to COVID-19 must improve and we will continue to closely monitor developments around the virus on a daily basis,” Sankey said. “In the coming weeks we will continue to meet regularly with campus leaders via videoconferences and gather relevant information while guided by medical advisors. We believe that late July will provide the best clarity for making the important decisions ahead of us.”

The athletic directors heard a report from members of the SEC’s Return to Activity and Medical Guidance Task Force and discussed issues relevant to the current pre-season calendar and the approaching fall seasons of competition, including an update on current COVID-19 testing procedures.

Among the topics discussed were possible scheduling options for holding athletic competition in the fall of 2020.

Also, among the topics discussed were game management best practices for ensuring a healthy environment at athletics events for student-athletes, coaches, officials, staff and fans.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.