[ad_1]
Greg Sankey said the events around the SEC on Monday are the “realities we have faced.”
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman has tested positive, Texas A&M has suspended training and the Mississippi State-Auburn game was postponed after an avalanche of pandemic news spread at the Power 5 conference.
“These are the realities we faced,” the SEC commissioner told the “Paul Finebaum Show” on Monday. “The moments of detention – usually pointing to Friday, but given our testing cycle, Sunday, Tuesday, Friday – run throughout the week. Today it was more public than they could on. a normally calm and peaceful week, which is rare in this environment.
The league has forecast some disruption, but as the schedule turns to November, time is running out.
“There’s pressure over the next four or five weeks because we don’t have infinite time,” Sankey said. “The adjustments may be different from what we envisioned six weeks ago.”
Sankey added that the SEC and its 14 athletic directors will discuss the possibility of playing makeup games – not involving division champions – on December 19, if necessary.
“Our goal is to play as much of the football calendar as possible,” he said. “Mostly in a healthy way, we then go to the disruption as it occurs and make adjustments and maintain the spirit of cooperation, collaboration and flexibility that we’ve had so far.
The SEC, according to Sankey, performed 65,000 fall student-athlete tests with a positivity rate of 0.005%.
Yet he knows there is discomfort.
“I’ll feel comfortable after our Thanksgiving weekend games,” he explained. “The feeling of discomfort is there, but there is a significant sense of accomplishment in our league of what we’ve accomplished. We know the expectation is to play all season.
“The circumstances surrounding the virus have always presented a challenge and the potential for disruption. We just have to deal with it.
Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on twitter @Mark_Heim.
[ad_2]
Source link