For Gamecocks football season, one new option is not on the table, Ray Tanner says
The NCAA gave every college football program the option to schedule a game on Aug. 29, a week earlier than most were set to start the 2020 season. Don’t expect South Carolina to take that option.
Gamecocks athletic director Ray Tanner said Wednesday in a radio interview with Teddy Heffner that there hasn’t been any discussion about moving up USC’s opener against Coastal Carolina. That game is set for Sept. 5 at Williams-Brice Stadium.
“That’s not anything that we have considered,” Tanner said. “I don’t expect us to do that. I would tell you today, that’s not on the board for us.”
Through much of the coronavirus pandemic, the approach by schools has been about delaying decisions and potentially delaying games to see if states can get on top of the outbreak and start seeing the spread go down.
But last week, Kansas and Oklahoma moved or set up games on Aug. 29, opening up a different path. The chance at a longer season likely means more flexibility in case things are shifted or if a team is sidelined for two weeks with an outbreak.
Coastal Carolina coach Jamey Chadwell spoke to reporters Tuesday and said his team is still preparing as if the schedule will go on as planned. The Pac-12 and Big Ten have dropped their non-conference games, while the SEC, ACC and Big 12 haven’t come to a final decision. But the CCU coach said he understood changes are always a possible reality with the pandemic.
“Obviously the SEC and Big 12 will make their decisions and we’ll have to fall in line from there,” Chadwell said. “I think from everything you’re hearing, everybody wants to try to play as many games as possible. It might not be the original schedule, but there might be teams that are around us that we can pick up and fill a schedule until we get to Sun Belt games. I think all options right now are on the table.”
“The Sun Belt I think has a plan in place . . . I’m anxious to hear it to be honest with you.”
A longer timeline for SEC decision?
In an interview last week, Tanner pointed to July 30 as a date around which there might be some clarity about what the SEC’s plan for a football season might be.
But on Wednesday, that timeline appears to have been a bit bullish.
“The board of governors meets next week at the NCAA level,” Tanner said. “There’s likely to be some movement in the next couple of weeks, but not anything today that would be noteworthy.”
He added he expected some decision sooner rather than later.
Several reports had SEC athletics directors and presidents meeting later in the week with hopes of settling on a plan. The ACC presidents are set to meet Wednesday, with reports surfacing this week that a decision on the football season is unlikely.
Teams that move games up to Aug. 29 could start preseason camp as early as Thursday. The Gamecocks are set to open camp next week, on Aug. 6.
The tricky question of fans in the stands
Ohio State made a tentative announcement about how many fans might be able to attend football games in 2020, saying if fans were allowed in, it would at most be at 20% capacity. That led to a question being posed to Ohio’s governor, who said it was simply too early to know if that’s feasible.
It sounded somewhat similar to Tanner addressing the same issue. He’d mentioned 15,000 to 20,000 fans inside Williams-Brice Stadium as a possible number at points since sports shut down, but that subject remains murky.
“Not sure ... exactly what will unfold,” Tanner said. “We’re in executive orders from the governor right now that we can’t have large gatherings. So that is in play. Until that is revisited, that’s where we are.”
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster has mentioned football several times, saying he won’t allow it at all if the coronavirus situation doesn’t improve within the state’s borders.
The Lexington Blowfish baseball team had to turn fans away at their opener because they still needed final permissions to have spectators. They were allowed to let in smaller, socially-distanced crowds a few weeks later.
Getting to 20% would mean 20,000 fans for Ohio State, which has a larger stadium than South Carolina. Getting to 15,000 in Williams-Brice would be about 18.7% of capacity.
“I think there will be a conversation somewhere down the road as far as that’s concerned,” Tanner said. “We don’t know right now. I think that we’ve got to get to a point where we really know what the fall looks like as far as football, soccer, volleyball is concerned.”
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 10:17 AM.
