While the Pac-12 and Big Ten have made decisions about their fall sports, the SEC continues to take a wait-and-see approach.
The conference’s 14 athletics directors met Monday at SEC headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama, and afterward, commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement the league expects to make a decision late this month.
“We had a productive meeting on Monday and engaged in discussions on a number of important issues that will contribute to critical decisions to be made in the weeks ahead,” Sankey said in a statement, via Bruce Feldman of FOX. “The ability to personally interact over the course of an entire day contributed to the productivity of the meeting.
“It is clear that current circumstances related to COVID-19 must improve and we will continue to closely monitor developments around the virus on a daily basis. In the coming weeks we will continue to meet regularly with campus leaders via videoconferences and gather relevant information while guided by medical advisors. We believe that late July will provide the best clarity for making the important decisions ahead of us.”
It was the SEC’s first in-personal meeting of athletics directors since March, when they met in Nashville at the men’s basketball tournament. The athletics directors have met multiple times per week via videoconference since the discontinuation of athletic competition in March.
Two of the Power 5 conferences already have decided to play conference-only schedules this fall, but Sankey said “let’s use time to the extent it’s available,” during an interview with Paul Finebaum.
“The trends are not what we desired,” Sankey told Finebaum. “Pretty much in the wrong direction. That’s problematic. But it’s not the finish line.”
The SEC will continue to monitor COVID-19 trends as well as testing ability, which Sankey calls “critical to us moving forward.”