More decisions could be made this week on whether additional college football games will be canceled for the season.
The Mid-American Conference has already postponed its season along with UConn.
There are also media reports that the Big Ten conference has voted to cancel the 2020 college football season and Pac-12 could follow. So far, no official announcements have been made.
The Southeastern Conference though is exercising patience before making any decisions about what its season would look like.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey joined Good Morning America on Channel 2 Tuesday morning to discuss the state of college football during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sankey compared college campuses to the bubbles imposed by professional leagues that returned to playing this year.
“You have to remember that our student-athletes are really in their own bubble on campuses. We have athletic programs with embedded health care professionals. We as a conference and each of our universities have taken this virus seriously from the beginning. The comparative is should we simply let people out in the society where we don’t know if they have COVID or not,” he said.
Here’s the full interview of #SEC Commissioner @GregSankey on @GMA.
— Alison Mastrangelo (@AlisonWSB) August 11, 2020
Sankey mentions campus provides safe “bubble” format for players and says they are evaluating all of the latest research and info regarding #COVID19 . #CollegeFootball
pic.twitter.com/T5Q0BYtYFY
Best advice I’ve received since COVID-19: “Be patient. Take time when making decisions. This is all new & you’ll gain better information each day.” @SEC has been deliberate at each step since March...slowed return to practice...delayed 1st game to respect start of fall semester..
— Greg Sankey (@GregSankey) August 10, 2020
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Sankey added that the conference has been involved in testing and following local health policies, which he thinks has created a healthy environment for the student-athletes.
The SEC did allow teams to resume football practices during the summer, but without helmets and pads. The conference also pushed their season back by three weeks to the end of September.
“We’ve been very deliberate in our decision making,” Sankey told GMA. “Our timeline is based on the advice of bio-statistician, who way back in April said to me, “This is a new virus. We have not been through this before. So the longer you take to make decisions the better information you will have available to make those decisions.‘
“That has been wise council and council we have heeded every step of the way.”
As of right now, the SEC season will be conference-only with each team playing 10 games.
Cox Media Group
