If SEC schools are sensible, they should cancel their Spring Games

Spring Games aren’t like your run-of-the-mill football games. They have been cancelled due to crappy weather, and they will get cancelled again.

This year, every school in the SEC should lead the way in college football, and cancel their Spring games because of the Coronavirus.

They need to do it before the States – after declaring an emergency because of the numbers of people affected it – effectively close down the games before them, leaving Vanderbilt – the only private institution in the SEC – to make its choice.

These Spring Games are extremely well-attended in the SEC, with most schools in the conference seeing their stars of the future play on their hallowed turf.

In Europe, games between soccer clubs are getting played behind closed doors, or entire leagues are being suspended – particularly in Italy, which is one of the hubs of the Coronavirus.

It won’t be an entire surprise if March Madness crowds are forcibly reduced by states, or played entirely behind closed doors. The Ivy League used its brains and cancelled its postseason tournaments, handing Yale a spot in the NCAA Tournament (Men) and Princeton (women).

So why shouldn’t the schools get ahead of what seems like the inevitable and simply cancel their games? The events are free, meaning the schools only really lose on merchandising revenue, which they more than make up for anyway in SEC television money. Not only that, but the games certainly aren’t going to be as full because of virus worries, and it becomes even more of a strain upon schools financially. l because of people not wanting to take the risk of exposure – especially those who are older and are more infirm.

It makes more rationale than putting thousands at risk just for a stadium scrimmage.

If the SEC schools want to, they can always broadcast the Spring Games behind closed doors. After all, the NFL Combine does that it seems to work fine.