Gamecocks spring football not fully ruled out, but SEC commissioner not optimistic
South Carolina’s spring football practice has been postponed for the moment, but not technically ruled out.
But things don’t look promising there.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said on a conference call Wednesday the door is still slightly open, as the conference’s cancellation of spring activities only covers practice through April 15 because of the coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak.
“It does not apply to spring practices at this time,” Sankey said. “I think that’s the important qualifying phrase.”
He noted it’s not as if things will suddenly get back to business the 16th. He also said he hopes things will be in a good enough place for fall sports, notably football, to proceed as planned.
The Gamecocks got through five spring practices, with 10 more that had been planned.
A few schools got through practice early, and some had not even started.
Sankey sounded like a man not optimistic there would be much in the way of spring practice any time soon, but he said he was confident the league would look into fall sports getting some kind of out-of-season practice time to prepare for the start of their years.
“If you look at the national public messaging about no gatherings above 50, certainly difficult to conduct any football practice under that limitation,” Sankey said. “ And even with smaller numbers have been communicated, 10 is often referenced, thereby making it impossible into May. I’m not going to be overly optimistic about the return to practice. We haven’t fully foreclosed that opportunity, but I think practically, that window is pretty narrow.”
