As expected, the SEC is going to wait as long as possible until making its next decision when it comes to the fate of football.
Last week, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey warned that “we are running out of time” when it comes to the 2020 college football season. That said, Sankey reiterated Monday that his conference will still wait to make any type of decision until the end of this month.
Below is Sankey’s statement on the current state of affairs, which came after an expected face-to-face meeting of the conference’s 14 athletic directors. The biggest takeaway? Sankey allowed that the current trend of COVID-19 positives across the country must begin trending downward in order for there to be a college football season in 2020.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. The ability to personally interact over the course of an entire day contributed to the productivity of the meeting.
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. 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 Big Ten and Pac-12 have already announced they are going to a conference-only schedule for football. The ACC is in line with the SEC in making such a determination at the end of July. It’s expected the Big 12 will announce its next move around the same time as well.