SEC football updates: Here’s the latest news about fall sports on Aug. 16
Monday is the day — preseason camps finally get started across the SEC after being pushed back several weeks as the conference shuffled its schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic.
By making it this far, the SEC has already gone farther than the Big Ten and Pac-12, which postponed their seasons this past week, with hopes of playing in the spring.
However, there are still around six weeks left to go before games are actually played. So here are latest updates on how the conference and college football are approaching the restart.
SEC schedule coming Monday
Ever since the SEC switched to a 10-game, conference-only schedule and pushed the start of the season back to Sept. 26, teams’ fall slates have been upended. The league revealed each program’s two new added opponents to their original eight on Aug. 7, and ever since, fans, coaches and players have been waiting to see how things will be shuffled.
They’ll get their answer soon, as the league announced this weekend that it would be revealing each team’s Week 1 opponent at 3 p.m. Monday on The Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC Network. That will be followed by the full schedules at 7 p.m., also on the SEC Network.
Every team will have one bye week throughout the season, as well as a conference-wide bye the week of Dec. 12.
Vandy has multiple veterans opt out
Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason told ESPN on Saturday that “five or six” players have opted out of the 2020 season due to coronavirus concerns, including four that started at least a game for the Commodores last season.
Senior linebacker and last year’s leading tackler, Dimitri Moore, headlines the bunch, as well as a group of offensive linemen in Cole Clemens, Jonathan Stewart and Bryce Bailey. They join kicker Oren Milstein, who was the first publicly known player to opt out in the entire SEC, per the Tennesseean.
According to a running tally compiled by Athlon Sports of players who have publicly announced their decision to opt out, Vanderbilt now has the most opt-outs in the conference.
Potential ‘game changer’ test approved
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorization on Saturday for a cheap, fast saliva test for COVID-19 developed by researchers at Yale and funded with help from the NBA, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Such a test could be a “game changer” for college football, an anonymous team doctor reportedly told Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger. With reduced costs, quicker turnarounds and expanded testing, outbreaks would theoretically be easier to monitor and control.
The Athletic’s Chris Vannini also tweeted about the saliva test’s approval, saying American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco had previously told him he hoped such a test would be approved and that it could “save the football season.”
Bob Caslen, Ray Tanner talk tailgating, attendance, myocarditis
During and after a board of trustees meeting for the University of South Carolina on Friday, university president Bob Caslen and athletic director Ray Tanner both talked about the challenges facing this season.
Caslen explained to the board why the SEC is not as worried about the heart condition myocarditis, which has been associated with COVID-19, as conferences like the Big Ten.
“The report that everybody is concerned about, what they had reported, the sample size they used was 50-year-old men,” Caslen said, referring to what he heard from the SEC task force. “Rather than 21-year-old athletes. Nonetheless, it wasn’t the same particular sample group.
“They also said that myocarditis is something that can be identified with an EKG or with an echo test and with a discussion on symptoms. So it’s not that you wonder whether or not you have that. It’s something that can be detected.”
And Tanner said the Gamecock athletic department has started the process of submitting for a waiver to host fans at Williams-Brice Stadium — specifically, Tanner has said USC calculated Williams-Brice could be at 24.6% capacity and support social distancing measures. With a total capacity of 80,250, that would put the number of people in the stands at 19,741 or so.
When it comes to tailgating, South Carolina has jurisdiction over Gamecock Park and the State Fairgrounds, Tanner said, and they have been discussing how to handle that this year with several ideas in play, but none that he was willing to elaborate on.
SEC coaches reportedly heated over schedule
According to ESPN’s Chris Low and Alex Scarborough, things got testy on a conference call with SEC head coaches on Thursday. The issue? The two games added to every team’s schedule last Friday.
Low and Scarborough, citing sources on the call, said Friday that coaches were frustrated that the conference did not explain how it chose the two new opponents for each program, with multiple coaches saying the process appeared “corrupt.”
Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports reported the contentious nature of the conversation as well, saying coaches were not given any “formula” by which the opponents were chosen.
The two additional games were needed after the SEC voted to move to a 10-game, conference-only schedule this fall, hoping that uniform testing protocols and reduced travel will combat COVID-19.
NCAA says no fall championships
NCAA president Mark Emmert announced Thursday that there will be no fall championship tournaments, as a majority of conferences and programs have now postponed their fall seasons.
“The board of governors also established if you don’t have half of the schools playing a sport, you can’t have a legitimate championship,” Emmert said in a video posted to the NCAA’s Twitter. “We can’t in any Division I NCAA championship sport now — which is everything other than FBS football that goes on in the fall. Sadly, tragically, that’s going to be the case this fall, full stop.”
As Emmert said, FBS football doesn’t organize a national championship through the NCAA, so the SEC, ACC, Big 12 and other conferences can still work toward a fall season. However, women’s volleyball, women’s and men’s soccer, cross country, field hockey and men’s water polo all won’t have national championships to play for. Emmert said sports could try to reschedule for the winter or spring.
Shortly after Emmert’s video, the SEC released a statement from commissioner Greg Sankey saying the conference was reviewing the impact of the NCAA’s move. League teams could theoretically play a regular season this fall and compete for a conference title with no NCAA postseason.
The NCAA Division I Council previously recommended that any student-athletes who can’t participate this season because of the pandemic receive an additional season of competition and an extension of their five-year eligibility window.
This story was originally published August 16, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
