Greg Sankey on Potential Season: "We're Running Out of Time"

The last few days have been a complete and utter nightmare for fans of college football, with numerous conferences electing to modify how they will play the 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The last few days have been a complete and utter nightmare for fans of college football, with numerous conferences electing to modify how they will play the 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Ivy League announced that they would cancel all athletics until the spring of 2021 on Wednesday, with the Big Ten later following suit by backing out of all its non-conference games on Thursday. The situation worsened even more on Saturday with the PAC-12 announcing that it would also move to a conference only schedule — joining the Big Ten. Due to the recent momentum against having a ‘normal’ season, the SEC will be forced to consider what it should do in order to provide a safe year of football for its players during an upcoming meeting among all SEC athletic directors, which is currently scheduled for Monday in Birmingham.

Because of the recent news, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was forced to echo a very somber message during an appearance on ESPN’s “The Marty and McGee Show,” pointing out that if cases continue to rise throughout the United States — especially in the South — then the season would be virtually impossible for the conference to hold.

“The direct reality is not good,” said the SEC Commissioner. “We’ve politicized medical guidance of distancing, breathing masks, hand sanitation, ventilation of being outside, and being careful where you are in buildings… We are running out of time to correct and get things right, and as a society we have to be as healthy as we can be.”

Despite the growing number of conferences who have made modifications to their seasons, Sankey strongly claims that they will put absolutely no pressure on the SEC and the timetable for when they eventually reach a decision. “I don't feel any pressure because of somebody else's decisions,” said Sankey in a stern tone. “We're trying to make the right decisions for us, for the Southeastern Conference. It does have an impact because I've said publicly we're all linked nationally, so when other people make decisions, yes, there's an impact, but also we're going to look at our situation and make a decision that's appropriate for the Southeastern Conference and most importantly for the health of our student-athletes.”

Sankey would then wrap up his comments by reiterating that his job as the SEC Commissioner is to be a realist, and then pointed out yet again that the United States was heading in the wrong direction in terms of COVID-19 cases. “What I've tried to do is both keep a focus on what's ahead but provide reality, which has been that ‘I'm going to focus on preparing to play the season as scheduled, but also acknowledge the circumstances around coronavirus are going to guide us in that decision-making,’” Sankey said. “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 ACC and Big 12 are the only other major conferences to not announce their official plans for the season — with the Big Ten and Pac-12 both choosing to go with a conference-only schedule. The SEC’s 14 athletic directors will meet in Birmingham, Alabama to discuss what the best way forward for College Football and other fall sports is on Monday.