It was a bleak day for college football with the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences both announcing there would be no football for their leagues this fall, but the SEC is not giving up yet.
Tuesday afternoon, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey issued a statement. While the league watched the developments with interest, it said, his conference will continue to monitor the situation before coming to any sort of conclusion as far as the 2020 season is concerned.
“I look forward to learning more about the factors that led the Big Ten and Pac-12 leadership to take these actions today,” Sankey said in a statement emailed to reporters. “I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 members are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes.”
Sankey continued by saying the conference will continue its current course for now. The league is still scheduled to kick off its season Sept. 26 with fall camp scheduled to begin on Monday.
“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,” Sankey said.
The ACC issued a similar statement just before the one by SEC at approximately 6 p.m. Tuesday.
“The ACC will continue to make decisions based on medical advice, inclusive of our Medical Advisory Group, local, and state healthy guidelines, and do so in a way that appropriately coincides with our universities’ academic missions,” the ACC statement read. “We will continue to follow the process that has been in place for months and has served as well. We understand the need to be flexible and to be prepared to adjust as medical information and the landscape evolves.”
That leaves all eyes on the Big 12 conference, whose officials met today, but as of late Tuesday, no decision had been reached.
Earlier Tuesday evening, Drew Davison of the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported that momentum was building toward the Big 12 aligning with the SEC and SEC.
It appears the report was correct.
Later, sister site SoonerScoop.com reported that the Big 12 had decided to join the SEC and ACC and attempt to play the 2020 season on schedule.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg later reported that the Big 12 would announce a revised schedule to include a round-robin conference schedule and one non-conference name.
Along with the Big Ten and Pac-12, the Mountain West and MAC conference have announced they will not play this fall.
Having more conferences willing to play would certainly enhance the chances of the season taking place, as earlier on the Dan Patrick Show, Sankey indicated that the SEC would not go it alone.
“Could we? Certainly. There’s a difference between something you can do and something you should do in life,” he said. “We actually set up our schedule with our own health protocols; we could, if that’s the circumstance, operate on our own. But I’m not sure if that’s the right decision.”
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