What Monday's Meeting Between SEC ADs Could Mean for the Florida Gators
SEC Athletic Directors will meet on Monday to discuss the handling of the fall sports schedule, according to Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger.
The in-person meeting is set to be the first time all 14 ADs have met in-person since the shut down of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and conference tournaments on March 12th. According to SI, the meeting has been planned for at least two weeks, much before the shutdowns and mandates laid out this week due to the coronavirus.
Yesterday, the Big Ten conference announced that it would be playing conference-only games, meaning only 10 in-conference games will be played between teams. There have also reportedly been discussions in the ACC ranks to convert to a conference-play schedule, adding Independent Notre Dame to the schedule as well.
"The aim is for commissioner Greg Sankey to gather candid, in-person feedback from each athletic director about how they believe the conference should proceed with fall sports—especially football. Significant decisions are not expected from the meeting," writes SI.
While significant decisions may not be made with the meeting, it could lead to a variety of options which includes conference-only play for the SEC. With the variety of conferences already discussing the timing of the start for college football, it's reasonable to expect similar discussions to be had by the athletic directors of the SEC on Monday.
According to Forde and Dellenger, however, the SEC does not want to make any haste decisions, rather, letting the month of July play out before any concrete decisions are made, however, it is unclear whether or not the Big Ten decision will have any impact on the SEC in its decisions on Monday.
Something that has also been made clear by the NCAA on Thursday is that the conferences are being left to their own devices, deciding on critically important matters that will ultimately change the landscape of their product.
For the Gators, if the SEC is to decide, as others conferences have or are leaning towards, to lean towards conference-only play, Florida will miss out on four out of their 12 current matchups. The Gators are currently slated to play four out-of-conference opponents, including Eastern Washington, South Alabama, New Mexico State and Florida State.
As mentioned yesterday, with the ACC already deliberating and deciding whether or not to cancel all out-of-conference play, the Gators may have their first season since 1958 in which they do not face their in-state rival, Seminoles.
The first in-conference game for the Gators, which happens to be the first in-conference SEC game in general, is currently slated to be against Kentucky on September 12th at home. The Gators are also scheduled to play @Tennessee (9/26), South Carolina (10/3), LSU (10/10), @Mississippi (10/17), Georgia (10/31), @Vanderbilt (11/7) and Missouri (11/14).
As it currently stands, the Gators have had 11-student-athletes test positive for the coronavirus, however, it is not yet clear whether or not any were football athletes. The Gators began offseason workouts on June 8th and are currently slated to host their fall camp beginning on August 7th.
Of course, this could be impacted by what the SEC decides at their in-person meeting on Monday if they make any decisions at all. As it stands, it appears many conferences and athletic directors have become more pessimistic regarding football starting on time at all.
Although ridding out-of-conference play will affect some travel for teams, the Gators would actually only be canceling one road game through such change, traveling a few hours to Tallahassee.
Time will tell what will happen to the college football landscape due to the coronavirus pandemic, however, it appears - for now -, it will not be a normal season whatsoever, and the cancellation of games or even a delay shouldn't be a surprise for anyone.
