SEC's Home Field Advantage, Game Day Atmosphere will take a Big Hit from COVID-19
The members of the Southeastern Conference have always taken pride in having one of the toughest home field advantages in all of college football.
Two reasons why:
1—The SEC has a lot of really good football players and it’s been that way for a while. Last April marked the 14th consecutive year that the SEC has led all conferences in total players taken in the NFL Draft.
2—The fans in the SEC show up and show out. In 2019 the SEC led the nation in football attendance for the 19th consecutive year. Six of the top 11 schools in attendance last season were from the SEC.
Those things can make a significant difference when teams visit SEC stadiums.
After a new coach has spent his first year in the SEC, I try to follow-up and ask what they learned. The answer was almost always one or two things:
“The difference between 10-2 and 6-6 is a handful of plays in a handful of games,” an assistant once told me.
Or this from another assistant coach: “It doesn’t matter if you’re going to Tuscaloosa or Starkville. If you can get a win on the road in this league, take it, get on the bus and go home.”
Frank Broyles, the late, great coach and athletics director at Arkansas, said it best many years ago:
“SEC fans don’t go to college football games to spectate,” he said. “They go to PARTICIPATE.”
But this season—if there is a season—will be different.
That’s because the size of the crowds in these palatial stadiums are going to take a huge hit in order to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Earlier this week the SEC announced a whole host of guidelines that must be in place at conference stadiums in order to have fans watch the game in person. The requirements ranged from mandatory masks when moving through the stadium to a ban on “suite hopping” from one luxury box to another.
Later in the week several SEC schools released specifics on how they would comply, beginning with a significantly reduced stadium capacity.
It is going to be sticker shock for a lot of season ticket holders who are used to being the stadium.
Alabama (Bryant-Denny Stadium) and Auburn (Jordan-Hare Stadium) announced this week that they will max out at 20 percent of capacity. That means that Alabama’s maximum crowd will be 20,364 in a stadium that holds 101,821. Auburn’s crowd will be limited to 17,490.
Georgia’s Sanford Stadium holds 92,746 but will limit its home football crowds to somewhere between 20 and 25 percent of capacity. And dividing up those tickets is not going to be an easy or popular task.
Then there is the matter of the students. Georgia normally sets aside 16,000 tickets per home game for students. That number will be reduced to 3,000.
And if that wasn’t controversial enough, there is the subject of tailgating, which is one of the foundational pillars football in the South is built upon.
The decision on tailgating will be left up to the individual schools.
Alabama and Auburn have already announced that there will be no tailgating at home games this season.
“Due to guidelines related to social distancing and large gatherings, tailgating will not be permitted on the University of Alabama campus for the 2020 football season,” director of athletics Greg Byrne said in a letter to this season ticket holders.
Expect others schools to do the same because there is simply no way to manage the tailgating scene at a big SEC game. In normal times, it is not usual for 20,000-30,000 fans to show up without tickets because they just wanted to be a part of the tailgating scene. There would be no social distancing.
Other traditions will go by the wayside because of the reduction in crowds. Auburn has its pregame “Tiger Walk” where the players walk through a human corridor to Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Georgia has its “Dawg Walk” outside of Sanford Stadium where the players walk through the crowd led by the school’s Redcoat Band.
It’s probably not going to happen.
“To practice social distancing that’s really not conducive to the Dawg Walk as we know it today,” McGarity told a group of reporters on a ZOOM call on Wednesday. “It’s really the only way our team can get to the stadium now so I’m sure it will be modified in some degree.”
At this point we’re not even sure if the bands are going to be allowed in the stadium. Ouch.
Put it all together and the home field advantage and the atmosphere that makes college football so special, is taking a huge hit from the coronavirus.
But the home team does have this going for it: The athletics directors of the SEC have decided that no tickets will be set aside for fans of the visiting team.
The vote was unanimous.
VERY SOCIAL DISTANCING
Projected capacity of several SEC Stadiums for 2020 season
School (Stadium)……..Capacity….% Allowed…….Total attendance
Georgia ……………………92,746………25%................23,186
Texas A&M………………110,000…….30%................33,000
Auburn……………………...87,451……..20%................17,790
Alabama……………………101,821……..20%................20,364
Tennessee………………….102,455…..25%..................25,614