SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sounded the alarm today that his level of concern for the 2020 college football season is “high to very high.”
During an interview on Marty and McGee on ESPN Radio, Sankey said “We put a medical advisory group together in early April with the question ‘What do we have to do to get back to activity?’ and they’ve been a big part of the conversation. But, the direct reality is not good and the notion that we’ve politicised medical guidance of distancing, and breathing masks, and hand sanitization, ventilation of being outside, being careful where you are in buildings. There’s some very clear advice about — you can’t mitigate and eliminate every risk but how do you minimize the risk?We are running out of time to correct and get things right and as a society, we owe it to each other to be as healthy as we can be.”
Sankey said he is moving forward with the premise that the season will begin as scheduled, but acknowledged that the situation is not promising.
“I’m going to focus on preparing to play the season as scheduled but acknowledge the circumstances around coronavirus are going to guide us in that decision making,” Sankey said. “And the reality right now is the trends in our region in our nation are not in the positive direction for being able to have normal experiences.”
The commissioner reiterated that a decision will not be made until the end of July, and the Big Ten and Pac-12’s decision to move to a conference-only schedule hasn’t put any pressure on him to follow suit.
With the Ivy League suspending fall sports, Covid-19 cases increasing and states still in lockdown, it may not be feasible to have a football season in a pandemic.
