College Football Aiming for Training Camp in Mid-July
In a recent article done by SI.com's Ross Dellenger and Pat Forde, each of the 10 Major conference commissioners along with Notre Dame's athletic director were asked several questions regarding a return to sports this fall and just what that might look like.
There's a lot to unpack in this article, so if you have time, feel free to read it here. Though, we will give you the pertinent information regarding the SEC and Georgia football.
Training Camp Starting in July
Though every state is dealing with the coronavirus to some extent, it's impacted states differently. So, it's going to impact the decisions and timetable for return differently for each conference. However, they've all seemingly agreed upon one thing, if college football is going to start on time they are going to need at least six weeks, starting in Mid-July, to get their players ready.
A training camp of sorts that gradually escalates in physicality. Now, this has led to programs exploring the purchasing of testing equipment for their training rooms because another thing commissioners agree upon is the fact that every athlete and staff member needs testing according to Forde and Dellenger.
"The White House advised us that we might want to think about getting diagnostic equipment in our training rooms so we can process our own tests.” —Anonymous Power 5 commissioner
As for the public relations hit that most leagues are fearing within regards to testing, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby says "One of the things we heard is that it's expected that testing nationally is going to double every month from now on."
SEC vs SEC
It's something that's been rumored for weeks at this point. The idea of conferences moving forward without the others. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas have all removed their Stay-at-Home orders, with Louisiana's set to be lifted May 15th. So, all of the states with SEC schools are slowly creeping back to normalcy and all of them are planning to have students on campus this fall.
What does an all-SEC schedule look like? Well, it could lead to teams playing each other twice in a season according to Forde and Dellenger:
"Contingency plans are being made in order to complete schedules, including leagues with divisions playing only division games and conference teams playing twice in a year."
What Happens is Someone Tests Positive?
All of this cannot, and likely will not happen without extensive testing and it's going to come at a cost. According to Mountain West commissioner says a prominent medical expert told commissioners that it could cost $1,000 per athlete to do all required testing.
So, with all of the comprehensive testing, what happened when one student-athlete tests positive? Well, commissioners agree that it's likely to happen. Of the 5,000+ college football players around the country, someone is likely to test positive at some point. If and when that occurs, one commissioner says you're going to have to "learn how to co-exist with it and mitigate the severity with a vaccine. We're going to have to find the new normal."
Bottom line, it's still a mess but SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said it best:
"We’re learning more and more every day and if you look back 30 days of what you knew then and 30 days to what you’ll know down the road ... if you can be patient in making major decisions, you’ll be able to gather more and more information to inform better decision making at a later time."
The only problem is, time is running out.
