Tag: Southeastern Conference

SEC must decide if it wants to fight a world war in college sports

Will the Big Ten suffer from its decision to be the first Power Five conference to give up on the pursuit of fall football in 2020?

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by our sister site Trojans Wire and has been republished in its entirety below. 

It is a fair question to ask, though we won’t know the answer for a few years at the very least: Will the Big Ten suffer from its decision to be the first Power Five conference to give up on the pursuit of fall football in 2020?

Plenty of the people I follow on #CollegeSportsTwitter think — quite reasonably, I might add — that if the SEC, ACC and Big 12 want to have a true College Football Playoff, even though the Big Ten and Pac-12 have opted out, that is their right.

It’s a fair point.

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I have my reservations about holding a four-team playoff with only three major conferences left to play (if we’re able to play football at all), but the argument that the Big Ten and Pac-12 didn’t consult the other conferences, and therefore have to live with their own choices, is entirely reasonable.

After all, this wasn’t a group decision made by all Power Five conferences. EVERY conference is acting on its own, so if some conferences want to stop and other conferences want to play, there is no unanimous agreement on the ground rules. Therefore, the conferences sticking it out can reasonably claim to have the playoff — and the money from a playoff — for themselves.

I will address the playoff question in greater depth in a separate piece, but for now, I want to focus on this particular tension point: The Big 12 is a formidable conference, and Clemson of the ACC is a superpower, but we all know which is the strongest, deepest, toughest conference in major college football: It is the SEC.

The ACC was the best conference in the country in 2016, and the Big Ten has had its moments, but over the past three seasons, the SEC has been king, and there’s really no debate to be had. Georgia and Alabama vied for the 2017 title; LSU went unbeaten last year in a display of supreme dominance; Alabama made the 2018 title game with Georgia very nearly getting in the playoff as well. If Clemson isn’t winning the national championship these days, the SEC is. The SEC has placed at least one team in the national championship game of college football — BCS or playoff — in 13 of the last 14 seasons, the one exception being the 2014 season’s title game between Ohio State and Oregon.

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So, as we contemplate a world in which the SEC, Big 12, and ACC all try to play college football while the Big Ten and Pac-12 sit on the sidelines, the really big drama — bigger than all the others — focuses on the two richest and most powerful conferences in college sports, the SEC and the Big Ten.

By most if not all measurements, the SEC and Big Ten are the top two money-making conferences in college sports, with the ACC and Big 12 behind them and the Pac-12 struggling to keep pace. They jockey for position, and the positions (one versus two) might change from time to time, but the SEC and the Big Ten are the top two. They have been for many years.

With the Big Ten’s decision to step away from fall football, though, some people are wondering if political, economic, and recruiting-based blowback is about to hit the Big Ten.

Let’s say that happens. Will the blowback fade away… or will it stick?

We don’t know, but it’s a fascinating question to entertain.

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Let’s ask a follow-up question: What might cement a negative trend for the Big Ten?

A good answer: If the SEC not only plays football, but does so SUCCESSFULLY, with relatively minimal incident or disruption? If that DID happen, it would probably be a game-changer.

How much of a game-changer? Hard to say, but probably enough that a chunk of top-tier recruits who might have previously targeted Ohio State or Penn State would instead commit to elite SEC programs. While it might be just the thing Jim Harbaugh at Michigan would need to get a more level playing field in the Big Ten East Division, it could be a big negative for the Big Ten on a national level.

The SEC could push down Ohio State and create a long-term reality in which it will always have the upper hand against the Buckeyes in any possible playoff semifinal… and better yet, it might not even have to face Ohio State in many playoff games in the coming decade.

The opportunity for the SEC is obvious right now: If it can manage to play, it will turn some heads among recruits.

The obvious and necessary question to ask: Is it worth it in a pandemic, especially if players can’t be given hazard pay or guaranteed health care?

The obvious and necessary follow-up question: If the SEC isn’t forced to shut down its fall season in the coming weeks, and it gets to the point where it at least tries to play a Week 1 game, what will be the standards used by the league to either continue or discontinue play in the event of an outbreak on one SEC team?

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I have my own views of what the standards should be, but the point is less on setting a standard and more on the larger possibility that the SEC could be so consumed with driving a stake into the Big Ten that it overplays its hand and gets caught in a coronavirus web of its own making.

The SEC might think this is a World War I in college sports, a chance to destroy a rival conference. To be clear, I understand the rationale and can see why the SEC would go forward under these conditions. The Big Ten, one could argue, might have made a reasonable decision to shut down, but still conducted a TERRIBLE process which was slipshod, arbitrary and abrupt.

The SEC, by all appearances, is being cautious. It is certainly not a mistake to wait a few more weeks — that can’t hurt anyone — but if it dives into the lake known as Week 1 (playing actual live games) and then gets hit with a severe coronavirus outbreak, this could all boomerang back at the SEC… and the politics of recruiting might shift to the Big Ten in the end, undercutting the SEC’s prime goal.

The SEC could be entering a world war of college sports.

As with any decision to enter a war, one must consider the damage and the cost first, before considering the possible upside of victory.

First, do no harm, as any doctor or medical expert would tell you.

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Southeastern Conference planning to move forward with football season

It’s clear the league believes its efforts to delay the start and create safety protocols are enough to continue moving toward a fall season

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College football is splitting into factions.

On one side, the Big Ten and Pac-12 have canceled the fall 2020 sports season. On the other, the SEC, ACC and Big 12 are all moving toward the start of a football season this fall. The latter two voted Tuesday to continue with preparations for the season, and the former, which proactively delayed the start of the season until Sep. 26 to allow for increased flexibility, is content to wait out the next month and see how the situation changes, according to a report from Andy Staples of The Athletic.

Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork told Staples that delaying the season bought the league time, and the SEC advisory committee hasn’t given administrators new information that would indicate the 10-game conference schedule is untenable.

“We announced our football opponents on Friday, and all of the sudden the conversation changed over the weekend,” Bjork said. “But we’ve been presented no new data that says that we need to change our course right now. We bought ourselves time for a reason. We delayed the start of practice for a reason. We’ve got the right protocols. We have our testing protocols outline from last Thursday. We have a pathway. And we’re not to the finish line yet. But we can see it and we just need more patience. That’s my perspective. I believe that’s my colleagues’ perspective, and that’s how we’re pushing forward right now.”

South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner said that other conferences choosing to postpone their seasons doesn’t directly affect how the SEC decides to proceed.

“I know we would love all the A5s to be playing. Obviously, the last two days it has been going in that direction. They hit a little pause button yesterday. That’s a decision they felt they needed to make, and now they are going to probably look toward the spring. I think spring is a challenge personally. It’s not impossible, but I think it’s very difficult to go in that direction. That’s just something they are looking at. We are approaching it from a different standpoint at this time. It could be something that we address, but it’s not where we are looking right now.”

One potential reason why the SEC appears to be stubborn when it comes to planning for the season to happen on time is political pressure. Unlike in a conference such as the Pac-12, university presidents and board members must contend with state legislators who want to see a season happen. On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a press conference at Florida State alongside President John Thrasher and multiple players in support of playing a season this fall.

Such pressure has led to SEC administrators waiting to make any consequential decisions when it comes to the 2020 season.

The mantra within the SEC since the start of the pandemic has been that the league would wait as long as possible to make drastic decisions. Tuesday reinforced that. “We have used the same playbook the whole time,” Bjork said. “That is, let’s be patient. Let’s continue to gather information. If there are new data points that need to be entered into the equation, then we do that. We’ve got a medical advisory task force that that meets very frequently. And if they present new information to us that causes us to change or pivot or pause, then we listen to that.”

There’s also the question of what happens if, for one reason or another, the Big 12 and ACC decide to split from the SEC and join the other leagues in postponing the season. Speaking on the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said that while the league could play alone, it probably wouldn’t be the best decision.

“I don’t think that’s the right direction, really,” Sankey told Patrick. “Could we? Certainly. There’s a difference between ‘Can you do something’ and ‘Should you do something’ in life. And so we’re actually set up with our schedule, with our own health protocols. We could, if if that was the circumstance, operate on our own. I’m not sure that’s the wisest direction. But, you know, a lot of interesting things have happened since March in college sports.”

One thing that could potentially put a damper on any plans the SEC has this fall are new reports showing a link between COVID-19 and a rare heart condition called myocarditis which, left untreated, can be fatal. People can develop myocarditis as a result of viral infections such as the flu or common cold, and fear over the long term effects of the condition were cited by both the Big Ten and Pac-12 in their decisions to cancel the fall season. It has been reported that at least five Big Ten players have been found to have myocarditis, as well as players in other conferences.

Bjork said this is why players will undergo a cardiac evaluation as part of the safety protocol, similar to the one they undergo when they first arrive on campus.

“Anytime a student-athlete arrives on campus, we we do a cardiac workup,” Bjork said. “And then, in order to return to any voluntary activity for any student-athlete — not just football, any student-athlete — they have to have the same cardiac workup. They’ve obviously got the COVID tests and then any positive cases, they have to have the same cardiac workup before they could return. So we’re taking every precaution that is a best practice at this point.”

It’s still unclear if given mass cancellations, the SEC will change its plans regarding the fall 2020 season. But for now, it’s clear the league believes its efforts to delay the season and create substantive safety protocols are enough to continue moving toward a fall season.

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Southeastern Conference planning to move forward with football season

It’s clear the league believes its efforts to delay the start and create safety protocols are enough to continue moving toward a fall season

[jwplayer VjsfzEz0]

College football is splitting into factions.

On one side, the Big Ten and Pac-12 have canceled the fall 2020 sports season. On the other, the SEC, ACC and Big 12 are all moving toward the start of a football season this fall. The latter two voted Tuesday to continue with preparations for the season, and the former, which proactively delayed the start of the season until Sep. 26 to allow for increased flexibility, is content to wait out the next month and see how the situation changes, according to a report from Andy Staples of The Athletic.

Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork told Staples that delaying the season bought the league time, and the SEC advisory committee hasn’t given administrators new information that would indicate the 10-game conference schedule is untenable.

“We announced our football opponents on Friday, and all of the sudden the conversation changed over the weekend,” Bjork said. “But we’ve been presented no new data that says that we need to change our course right now. We bought ourselves time for a reason. We delayed the start of practice for a reason. We’ve got the right protocols. We have our testing protocols outline from last Thursday. We have a pathway. And we’re not to the finish line yet. But we can see it and we just need more patience. That’s my perspective. I believe that’s my colleagues’ perspective, and that’s how we’re pushing forward right now.”

South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner said that other conferences choosing to postpone their seasons doesn’t directly affect how the SEC decides to proceed.

“I know we would love all the A5s to be playing. Obviously, the last two days it has been going in that direction. They hit a little pause button yesterday. That’s a decision they felt they needed to make, and now they are going to probably look toward the spring. I think spring is a challenge personally. It’s not impossible, but I think it’s very difficult to go in that direction. That’s just something they are looking at. We are approaching it from a different standpoint at this time. It could be something that we address, but it’s not where we are looking right now.”

One potential reason why the SEC appears to be stubborn when it comes to planning for the season to happen on time is political pressure. Unlike in a conference such as the Pac-12, university presidents and board members must contend with state legislators who want to see a season happen. On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a press conference at Florida State alongside President John Thrasher and multiple players in support of playing a season this fall.

Such pressure has led to SEC administrators waiting to make any consequential decisions when it comes to the 2020 season.

The mantra within the SEC since the start of the pandemic has been that the league would wait as long as possible to make drastic decisions. Tuesday reinforced that. “We have used the same playbook the whole time,” Bjork said. “That is, let’s be patient. Let’s continue to gather information. If there are new data points that need to be entered into the equation, then we do that. We’ve got a medical advisory task force that that meets very frequently. And if they present new information to us that causes us to change or pivot or pause, then we listen to that.”

There’s also the question of what happens if, for one reason or another, the Big 12 and ACC decide to split from the SEC and join the other leagues in postponing the season. Speaking on the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said that while the league could play alone, it probably wouldn’t be the best decision.

“I don’t think that’s the right direction, really,” Sankey told Patrick. “Could we? Certainly. There’s a difference between ‘Can you do something’ and ‘Should you do something’ in life. And so we’re actually set up with our schedule, with our own health protocols. We could, if if that was the circumstance, operate on our own. I’m not sure that’s the wisest direction. But, you know, a lot of interesting things have happened since March in college sports.”

One thing that could potentially put a damper on any plans the SEC has this fall are new reports showing a link between COVID-19 and a rare heart condition called myocarditis which, left untreated, can be fatal. People can develop myocarditis as a result of viral infections such as the flu or common cold, and fear over the long term effects of the condition were cited by both the Big Ten and Pac-12 in their decisions to cancel the fall season. It has been reported that at least five Big Ten players have been found to have myocarditis, as well as players in other conferences.

Bjork said this is why players will undergo a cardiac evaluation as part of the safety protocol, similar to the one they undergo when they first arrive on campus.

“Anytime a student-athlete arrives on campus, we we do a cardiac workup,” Bjork said. “And then, in order to return to any voluntary activity for any student-athlete — not just football, any student-athlete — they have to have the same cardiac workup. They’ve obviously got the COVID tests and then any positive cases, they have to have the same cardiac workup before they could return. So we’re taking every precaution that is a best practice at this point.”

It’s still unclear if given mass cancellations, the SEC will change its plans regarding the fall 2020 season. But for now, it’s clear the league believes its efforts to delay the season and create substantive safety protocols are enough to continue moving toward a fall season.

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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey releases statement on conference status

Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey released the following statement on the SEC’s official Twitter account. 

Amidst the turmoil of the college football landscape on Tuesday, after the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences announced that they will be canceling their 2020 fall football schedules, Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey released the following statement on the SEC’s official Twitter account.

“I look forward to learning more about the factors that led to the Big Ten and Pac-12 leadership to take these actions today. I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 member schools are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes. We will continue to further refine our policies and protocols for a safe return to sports as we monitor developments around COVID-19 in a continued effort to support, educate and care for our student-athletes every day.”

The Atlantic Coast Conference also released a statement over Twitter about the same time on Tuesday afternoon, which stated the following.

The ACC will continue to make decisions based on medical advice, inclusive of our Medical Advisory Group, local and state health guidelines, and do so in a way that appropriately coincides with our universities’ academic missions.

The safety of our students, staff and overall campus communities will always be our top priority, and we are pleased with the protocols being administrated on our 15 campuses. We will continue to follow our process that has been in place for months and has served us well.

We understand the need to stay flexible and be prepared to adjust as medical information and the landscape evolves.

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SEC Commish Greg Sankey appears on the Dan Patrick Show, discusses state of season

SEC Commish Greg Sankey appeared on the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday discussing pressure that ADs in other power conferences are feeling.

With the Big 10 and Pac-12 reportedly being close to canceling the 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic, or at least delaying it until the spring, the eyes of the college football world have been turned on the rest of the Power Five, namely the SEC, to see how it plans to address these developments.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey shed some light on those issues in his appearance on the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday morning. Discussing pressure that administrators in other power conferences are feeling, Sankey said that his league’s decision to delay the start of the season to Sep. 26 has given it more flexibility.

He believes that spreading out the preseason schedule and delaying the start of full practices has allowed the league to evaluate developing situations at member schools and others, and with the start slated for nearly a month after students begin returning to campus, he said the league will have time to reevaluate how the presence of other students affects the situation for players.

Sankey also gave no assurances that competition would happen, though. Responding to hypothetical discussions of the SEC playing by itself even if the rest of the Power Five canceled, he said that while it could happen, it probably wouldn’t be the best course of action.

Moving to the topic of player freedoms, Sankey reaffirmed that players have the option to opt-out and retain both their scholarship and spot on the team. In terms of eligibility preservation for players who choose to opt-out, he said that he expects the NCAA to reach a solution within the week.

The full interview can be viewed below. Sankey joins the show around the 28-minute mark.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushes for college sports to play this fall

DeSantis said many student-athletes are safer on campus and in the structured environment that football provides than otherwise.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published at USA TODAY Sports and has been republished in its entirety below. 

With the Mid-American Conference canceling its football season this fall and Big Ten presidents voting against playing in the fall, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is still hopeful that other Power Five conferences will be able to play.

“The Big Ten college presidents may have a little different sense of this. I think the Southeastern Conference, ACC, most of those institutions want to play because I think they see how important it is for the well-being of their student-athletes,” DeSantis said Monday on Fox Sports Radio. “I’m 100 percent in favor of it.”

Speaking with host Clay Travis, DeSantis endorsed the #WeWantToPlay movement, championed by Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, which calls for the major conferences to take steps to ensure games can be played this fall.

DeSantis said many student-athletes are safer on campus and in the structured environment that football provides than they would be otherwise in regard to coronavirus.

“Very few of the folks in that cohort are becoming seriously ill,” he said. “Just because you test positive, most of these athletes really never actually end up getting ill.”

However, the long-term effects of the novel coronavirus are not fully known. A recent study found about a quarter of young adults were still not back to their normal health weeks after contracting the infection.

DeSantis said he not only wants to see football played on college campuses this fall, but at high schools across Florida as well.

“Keeping kids out of school and denying them the ability, those who want to to play sports, those are going to have long-term ramifications,” he said. “You’ll be dealing with problems I think for society for years and years to come.”

He said he plans to go to a lot of high school games this fall to show his support. Noting that Florida has already conducted a NASCAR race with limited fans in the stands, as well as hosting the NBA’s bubble, DeSantis said the return of sports is important for the country as a whole in getting back to normal.

“You see everybody else is playing — the NBA, Major League Baseball … the PGA (Tour) … soccer is playing — there’s no reason we can’t play high school and college athletics,” he said. “It’s very, very important.”

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SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on college football season: ‘Be patient’

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey took to the Twittersphere to clarify his conference’s stance invoking a “patient” approach to their response.

It is looking less and less like there will be college football this fall after news that the Big 10 will cancel its 2020 schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to various unnamed sources. Shortly after, word that the Pac-12 would follow suit began circulating throughout social media, leading to what looks like the beginning of the Power Five domino descent.

Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey took to the Twittersphere to clarify his conference’s stance, invoking a “patient” approach to their response to COVID-19.

“Best advice I’ve received since COVID-19: ‘Be patient. Take time when making decisions. This is all new and you’ll gain better information each day,’” Sankey wrote. “@SEC has been deliberate at each step since March…slowed return to practice…delayed 1st game to respect start of fall semester…(developed) testing protocols…We know concerns remain. We have never had a (football) season in a COVID-19 environment. Can we play? I don’t know. We haven’t stopped trying. We support, educate and care for student-athletes every day, and will continue to do so…every day.

“…Deveoped testing protocols…We know concerns remain. We have never had a FB season in a COVID-19 environment. Can we play? I don’t know. We haven’t stopped trying. We support, educate and care for student-athletes every day, and will continue to do so…every day.”

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Florida Gators benefit from the new 2020 SEC football schedule

All in all, it was a good day for the Gators. Not only did they avoid Alabama, but both their new matchups provide some intrigue for fans.

On Friday evening, the SEC announced updated 10-game conference-only schedules for each of its 14 teams. Teams retained the previously scheduled eight conference games, and two more opponents from the opposite division were added to complete the schedule.

All in all, it was a good day for the Gators. Not only did they avoid Alabama (their scheduled SEC West opponent in 2021 who many expected they’d be forced to play this year), but both their new matchups provide some intrigue for fans.

At home, Florida draws Arkansas and former UF quarterback Feleipe Franks, who transferred to play his final season of eligibility in Fayetteville after missing most of the 2019 season with an ankle injury. We’ll get to see current starting quarterback Kyle Trask go head to head with Franks, who he used to back up, in the Swamp.

The Razorbacks had perhaps the worst day of anyone in the conference. In addition to playing every opponent in the SEC West, UA added Georgia in addition to UF as its new interdivisional opponents, leading to what athletic director Hunter Yurachek called the “most challenging schedule in the history of college football.”

On the road, the Gators take on longtime foe Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M. Fisher, who formerly won a national title at Florida State, has yet to face Florida at his new post in College Station. In the last matchup between the Gators and Aggies in 2017, UF lost at home the season before Fisher and Gators coach Dan Mullen were hired at their respective schools.

While it certainly could have been worse for Florida, the real winners of the schedule release were teams at the top of the conference: LSU, Alabama and Georgia. The Tigers made out perhaps the best, drawing Vanderbilt and Missouri, while the Crimson Tide’s East opponents are Kentucky and Missouri.

The Bulldogs, on the other hand, got even luckier with their West opponents than Florida did, drawing Arkansas in addition to Mississippi State. However, UGA was already previously scheduled to take on both Auburn and Alabama, and those games are still on, as of now.

After Arkansas, the SEC’s biggest loser on Friday has to be Missouri. Like Arkansas’ Sam Pittman, Mizzou coach Eliah Drinkwitz will have to navigate an incredibly difficult Year 1 conference schedule, having added LSU and Alabama to their SEC slate. Though the Tigers’ postseason ban is lifted heading into 2020, getting there will be difficult for Drinkwitz.

Dates and times for these matchups are currently unclear and could be announced at a later time to allow for more flexibility in scheduling as the situation regarding COVID-19 remains dynamic.

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SEC announces two more non-division football matchups for each school

The Southeastern Conference announced on Friday its schedule of two additional non-division matchups for each of its member schools.

The Southeastern Conference announced on Friday its schedule of two additional non-division matchups for each of its member schools.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey had the following to say about the scheduling decisions.

“We made every effort to create a schedule that is as competitive as possible and builds on the existing eight Conference games that had already been scheduled for 2020. This schedule is a one-year anomaly that we have developed under unique circumstances presented by the impact of COVID-19.”

Florida Gators fans now have games against the Arkansas Razorbacks in Gainesville and the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station to look forward to in addition to the LSU Tigers and Ole Miss Rebels, who had previously been scheduled. UF’s meetings with the latter two teams are set for back-to-back matchups on Oct. 10 and 17, respectively, while the dates for the latest inclusions have yet to be announced.

In a typical non-coronavirus season, SEC member schools play the other six teams in their division along with two non-divisional opponents and four out-of-conference games each year. The revised schedule pits each school against four non-divisional opponents in addition to the other six teams in its division — as opposed to two — with the second pair making up for two of the four lost non-conference matches.

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Updated football practice schedule announced by Southeastern Conference

The revised calendar provides student-athletes with more days off and fewer practices than required by the NCAA.

The Southeastern Conference announced on Tuesday its adjusted dates for preseason football activities for its member schools with the first allowable practice now updated to August 17.

The press release includes the following.

The new preseason calendar was developed based on recommendations of the SEC’s Return to Activity and Medical Guidance Task Force.

Last week the SEC announced its intention to begin the 2020 season on September 26 as it continues to monitor developments around COVID-19. The original start date of September 5 would have allowed for preseason football practice to begin August 7.

In the revised SEC preseason football calendar, from August 7-16 schools are permitted to conduct up to 14 hours per week of strength and conditioning, meetings and walkthroughs.

Beginning August 17 and until the opening game, schools are allowed 25 practices with a limit of 20 hours per week of practice time. A five-day acclimatization period is required, with two days in helmets only, two days in shells and the fifth day in full pads.

Schools will be required to provide student-athletes a minimum of two days off each week until the week before the first game of the season.

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