The storm that was feared to be on its way for college football finally hit Tuesday as the presidents of the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences voted to shut down sports until next year because of health and safety concerns.
The Big Ten said it would attempt to play football in the spring. The Pac-12 will revisit a restarting at a later time. The Big 12′s board of directors was also meeting Tuesday night to discuss the 2020 season.
Meanwhile, the SEC and ACC appear to be trucking on. As the Big Ten and Pac-12 news was being announced, the Georgia Bulldogs were conducting a walk-through practice on Woodruff Practice Fields. Georgia Tech has already started its preseason camp in preparation for a Sept. 7 start.
SEC athletic directors met earlier in the day Tuesday, before the Big Ten and Pac-12 announcements. The conference pushed back preseason camp to Aug. 17 in anticipation of a Sept. 26 start date for the college football season. The SEC is playing a 10-game, conference-only schedule, and that is still the plan as of Tuesday evening.
Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity said Big Ten and Pac-12 cancellations were “not surprising,” but did not anticipate them to have any effect on the SEC’s decisions.
“I’m sure it will be a topic at our next ADs meeting,” McGarity said.
SEC ADs have been meeting regularly with SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey since the coronavirus pandemic shut down college athletics in March. There currently is not a meeting scheduled but, “we’re all nimble and on Zoom and can adjust quickly as situations dictate,” McGarity said.
Sankey issued a statement at 6 p.m. Tuesday stating that the league is “comfortable” with its plans and procedures but that they are eager to “learn more” about their counterparts’ decisions.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 both cited potential medical risks from the coronavirus for pulling the plug on the football season. The Big Ten’s 10-game, conference-only schedule was to start Sept. 3. The Pac-12′s conference-only slate was to begin Sept. 26.
“The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement. “As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall.”
The SEC has a similar task force. UGA’s director of sports medicine, Ron Courson, serves on that committee and believes the conference can safely conduct football this fall.
“I think we can be safe, but we have to be very prudent in what we do and very deliberate in what we do,” he said. “We also have to be flexible and adaptable and knowing when we need to make a change.”
Count Georgia’s Zamir White among those confident football can be conducted safely this fall. The redshirt sophomore running back nicknamed “Zeus” sent out a tweet Tuesday saying the Bulldogs have “worked too hard not to take the field this fall” and that they “trust our leadership” to keep them safe.
The possible side effect of myocarditis in patients who have been infected with COVID-19 have heightened concerns of college administrators over trying to conduct sports amid the pandemic. However, myocarditis can result from a number of infections, and it’s something UGA monitors closely.
“There have been concerns with cardio,” Courson said. “Most of them have been with high-risk and older populations, but there is a concern. … So any athlete that has a positive test, we come back do an echocardiogram and an EKG. We also do some cardio labs as well, so you have to be cleared by a cardiologist before you go.”
Courson said all UGA athletes get a complete cardio work-up upon arrival at UGA, and that provides the baseline for future testing.
Meanwhile, UGA still plans to conduct face-to-face instruction on campus Aug. 20. Students will be allowed to start moving in Friday.
