SEC Will Not Hold Traditional Fall Camp, LSU Football Practice to Start Aug. 17 Sports Illustrated Reports
LSU football will have to wait a few extra weeks before it can start preseason practice. According to a report from Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger, the SEC will not hold a traditional fall camp prior to the 2020 season.
Programs across the conference were preparing to start fall camp this week, with Aug. 7 being the reported start date. Instead, the conference office agreed Tuesday to delay the start of preseason camp.
The conference will start practicing on Aug. 17 according to Dellenger's report, where each team will be allowed 25 practices over a 40-day window.
The SEC released further details about what the practice schedule will look like in a press release.
“A five-day acclimatization period is required, with two days in helmets only, two days in shells and the fifth day in full pads.
“Schools will be required to provide student-athletes a minimum of two days off each week until the week before the first game of the season.”
Here are the details of Dellenger's report on what teams can and can't do between now and Aug. 16.
The league is allowing coaches to continue the current 20-hour per week model until Friday. From Friday through Aug. 16, staffs will be restricted to 11 hours a week of football or strength work related events (six hours for strength and five hours for football). Their walk-throughs must be conducted without equipment. That includes no footballs, helmets or pads. In this enhanced access period, Friday to Aug. 16, teams have been granted three extra hours for non-football related meetings.
The delay to preseason camp goes hand in hand with the delay to start the season. Instead of having a seven-week preseason camp before the Sept. 26 start to the season, teams will have a much more manageable 40-day time table to spread out preseason practices.
The conference also pointed to the fact that the Aug. 7 start date was mapped out with the expectations the season would kick off Sept. 5, not three weeks later.
Fall practice was one of the topics LSU coach Ed Orgeron discussed on Off the Bench Tuesday morning.
"They're going to tell us how many days we'll be allowed to practice before the first game and then we're going to have a lot of days off with the season still being seven weeks away," Orgeron said. "We have to save our team. I can't wait to get our guys back, our coaches are on vacation this week."
