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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey called it a “week like no other” after having to postpone four college football games because of COVID-19 testing.
Sankey, who spoke to reporters on Wednesday, projected his confidence in the conference’s ability to end a regular season and host a championship game, but he also recognized the realities and challenges of playing during a pandemic. global.
As of Monday, the SEC announced that Saturday’s games in Alabama-LSU, Auburn-Mississippi State, Texas A & M-Tennessee and Georgia-Missouri had all been postponed after COVID-19 testing left player rosters available. exhausted.
“I am certainly shaken,” Sankey said of recent developments, “but not deterred”.
Sankey said the biggest challenge in playing remains the number of players being held up due to contact tracing as opposed to players with positive test results.
Policies around contact tracing, Sankey said, are not determined by the conference but rather at the local level.
“Contact tracing has the potential to magnify even a positive test,” he said.
Throughout his call with reporters, Sankey stressed the capacity and the need for change. He said they had known from the start that challenges would emerge this season, adding: “We will adjust.”
Sankey has been asked several times about the viability of the college football qualifiers from January 1 and whether that start date should be pushed back or the field of competitors should be widened. For the most part, Sankey declined to give firm answers, saying he was focused on the finish line to reach the SEC Championship game on December 19.
“We’re all going to have to be flexible,” Sankey said of the possibility of postponing the playoffs. “So I’m not going to speculate on the change, but I’m not oblivious to the potential that change may need to happen.
CFP executive director Bill Hancock told ESPN on Wednesday: “No one knows how many games a team will play. Everyone’s goal is to get games into the safety cone. For the selection committee. This is the status quo. It’s not a surprise. Most of us expected games to be postponed or canceled. Everyone is doing the best they can. “
Speaking about the idea of change, Sankey downplayed the possibility of a playoff bubble, saying the idea mainly existed in college basketball. He also touched on the idea of expanding the playoffs to eight teams and the challenges that would present.
“The expansion of the playoffs, in reality, makes it more difficult to end the playoffs,” he said.
Sankey reiterated that he was not concerned that SEC teams are potentially playing fewer games and how that could hurt them in the playoff race.
“One thing that doesn’t worry me is the respect that exists in playing a Southeastern conference program,” he said.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich contributed to this report.
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