SEC athletic directors met with Commissioner Greg Sankey all day Monday in Birmingham, Ala., and they decided to …
Meet again in two weeks.
While the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences have decided to scrap their regular-season schedules in favor of a slate of conference-only games, the SEC instead is continuing to take a wait-and-see approach on measures to preserve the college football season amid a seemingly unrelenting COVID-19 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 a statement distributed after Monday’s eight-hour meeting. “In the coming weeks we will continue to meet regularly with campus leaders via videoconferences and gather relevant information while guided by medical advisers. We believe that late July will provide the best clarity for making the important decisions ahead of us.”
Sankey said he and the 14 ADs heard a report from the SEC's “return to activity and medical guidance task force, which includes UGA sports medicine director Ron Courson. They discussed “issues relevant to the current preseason calendar and the approaching fall seasons of competition,” including an update on current COVID-19 testing procedures.
Sankey said that scheduling options for playing football in the fall of 2020 also were discussed. Ultimately, though, no action was taken to alter the current plans for an early-September kick off for the season.
“We had a productive meeting … and engaged in discussions on a number of important issues that will contribute to critical decisions to be made in the weeks ahead,” Sankey said. “The ability to personally interact over the course of an entire day contributed to the productivity of the meeting.”
Georgia AD Greg McGarity could not be reached for comment.
