What Ray Tanner said about the latest plans for Gamecocks football, USC COVID numbers
South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner had to admit, in the pursuit of concrete plan for the coming college football season, the timeline is getting tighter.
“It’s getting late early,” Tanner said in a radio interview with 107.5 The Game.
He noted the plan remains to make a final decision in the later part of the month or in early August. That’s in line with what SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has said publicly.
Tanner said there isn’t a hard date set for that decision. He did say groundwork has been laid heavily for different scenarios.
“I’m hopeful we can play,” Tanner said, noting he didn’t expect seasons to be canceled, but just postponed.
Tanner also said it’s much too early to say how many fans might be able to come to games. He mentioned 15,000 as a number with social distancing, but added plans with social distancing or fans at all remain up in the air.
“We’re still not at a point that we can made a decision today, tomorrow,” Tanner said.
He noted the Ivy League’s reported plans to move football to spring wouldn’t affect the SEC’s plan. He called spring football possible, but just one of many options, should team’s seasons get moved. He did say spring has at least been discussed more than it had previously (reduced games are also very possible).
Tanner did say the numbers across the state have been a concern, in part relating to S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster’s prohibition of spectator sports. Numbers of positive tests have been higher for several weeks, with the positive rate hovering around 20%.
South Carolina decided it would not release numbers of student athletes who tested positive, but Tanner said the teams that have returned had extremely low numbers, with some squads having no positives.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 2:49 PM.
