Category: Article

SEC adds another COVID-19 testing mandate

The SEC has updated their testing practices. The league will now require three tests per week instead of the updated two, with a third rapid diagnostic test coming nearer the game. “We remain vigilant in monitoring the trends and effects of COVID-19 as we learn more about the virus, and this cardiac evaluation enhances the effectiveness of the protocols already in place,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. He added: “We are confident in our institutions’ ability to provide a healthy environment supported by rigorous testing and surveillance. Our student-athletes have indicated their desire to compete and it is our responsibility to make every effort to deliver a healthy and medically sound environment for providing that opportunity.” In our view, the

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If the SEC really cared, they’d ban fans

If there’s one thing that differentiates us from other football conferences, it’s tailgating. The regalia of The Grove. The boats below Neyland. The whole LSU scene. We are legendary. Most schools are going to ban tailgating this season. After all, they don’t want a reduced stadium to spurn a party of 100,000 outside (we see you, Baton Rouge!). That could lead to some innovative tailgating spots in parks with big screens getting put up for people to watch games like you would for play-off games in different professional sports cities, but most sensible people will walk away. Georgia is not yet decided on this.  The stadiums themselves – schools have announced – will be reduced by around 20-25%. According to

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NCAA Division 1 Council votes on eligibility

The NCAA Division 1 Council has voted to allow players in any fall sports to play ANY amount of competition and it not to count towards their eligibility. In essence a player can opt-in for a game or two, and then opt-out if he or she feels uncomfortable about the environment. Also, this means that should the College Football season close down during the season, players won’t lose eligbility. This should assuage a lot of fears that the NCAA would take off years of people’s scholarships for opting-out, but it was predictable bearing in mind how badly the organising body has handled the whole COVID-19 situation. SO WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THE SCHOLARSHIP HEADACHE? With the new rules in

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SEC Schedule Focus: What’s going to fun to be watch each week

Week 1 (Sept. 26) Actually a pretty boring week here, with the favorites for the leagues almost guaranteed to go 1-0. Florida’s trip to Ole Miss will be interesting because of Lane Kiffin, and the standout game will be, er, Tennessee’s trip to South Carolina. A lot has been talked about of the Vols in this gruelling offseason, so we’ll see if they pick themselves up.  Alabama at Missouri Florida at Ole Miss Georgia at Arkansas Kentucky at Auburn Mississippi State at LSU Tennessee at South Carolina Vanderbilt at Texas A&M Week 2 (Oct. 3) An absolute monster of a Saturday with Auburn going to Georgia and Texas A&M rolling into Bryant-Denney Stadium. There’s also the battle of Spurrier between

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How do you keep players ‘in the bubble’?

  Right, so keeping players in the bubble’s going to be tough. It’s pretty obvious that the kids who are going back to school think that just because they passed a COVID test between March and now that they aren’t ever gonna get the plague, so they are gonna hang out, drink and do dumb stuff, because they are students. Football players aren’t different, particularly with all the distractions. And no, we ain’t talking about studies, since a lot of college football players wouldn’t be in college if it wasn’t for football. Hell, it’s a miracle most of them got through high school. A great friend of mine was pursuing the sort of lifestyle that would have made Hunter S Thompson proud

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SEC, ACC: No plans to scrap college football

The SEC and ACC have both said that they have no plans to quash their college football plans after the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences said that they are cancelling fall football. B SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement: “I look forward to learning more about the factors that led the Big Ten and Pac-12 leadership to take these actions today. I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 members are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes. We will continue to further refine our policies and protocols for a safe return to sports as we monitor developments around COVID-19 in a continued effort to support, educate and care

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The Terminator Chronicles: Big Ten/Pac-12 edition

August 11, 2020, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 fired the first missiles. After arguing as to whether the fall college football season should be delayed or not, the conference decided that that was it: They were cancelling fall football. There were words of players practicing at Nebraska and Iowa. There was a sense of hope that everything could get sorted with a player-pushed protest. News of all but Iowa and Nebraska deciding to resist came through yesterday, but they had said there wasn’t a vote. There was. And the red button was pushed. But now, there will be no Game. There will be no bitter battles for weird jugs, trophies and helmets. We won’t be able to jump around, white out,

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SEC unrolls new non-division opponents, Missouri gets screwed

The Southeastern Conference released the two new non-conference opponents for the ‘oncoming’ college football season. ALABAMA Previously scheduled: vs Georgia, at Tennessee Added opponents: vs. Kentucky, at Missouri ARKANSAS Previously scheduled: vs. Tennessee, at Missouri Added opponents: vs. Georgia, at Florida AUBURN Previously scheduled: vs. Kentucky, at Georgia Added opponents: vs. Tennessee, at South Carolina FLORIDA Previously scheduled: vs. LSU, at Ole Miss Added opponents: vs. Arkansas, at Texas A&M GEORGIA Previously scheduled: vs. Auburn, at Alabama Added opponents: vs. Mississippi State, at Arkansas KENTUCKY Previously scheduled: vs. Mississippi State, at Auburn Added opponents: vs. Ole Miss, at Alabama LSU Previously scheduled: vs. South Carolina, at Florida Added opponents: vs. Missouri, at Vanderbilt OLE MISS Previously scheduled: vs. Florida, at

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SEC mandates masks on sidelines, increased testing

The SEC has announced a number of things to keep players safe during the 2020 College Football season, including increased testing and mandating masks on all sideline personnel. Players will be tested six days and three games before days, and masks “will be required to wear face coverings on the sideline and physical distancing will be employed to the extent possible”. Testing will be done through a third party which is has been put in (obviously) to assuage worries about schools deliberately scewing testing in their own favour. And in its release, the SEC has also outlined what would be the factors to stop a game happening – or even a season. They are: Inability to isolate new positive cases, or quarantine

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NCAA: Schools must honour opt-out eligibility

The NCAA has said that schools must honour athletes’ scholarships if they choose to opt out of the 2020 season on health concerns, the ruling body said in a release. It added that should that happen, the scholarship MUST be honoured by the university, putting paid to worries that a player who opted-out would simply lose his scholarship – funnily enough costing teams leverage, but actually doing the right thing. Also, it said that schools “may not require student-athletes to waive their legal rights regarding COVID-19 as a condition of athletics participation”, which puts paid to a lot of schools asking players to sign waivers. Other measures included the requiring schools to cover COVID-19-related medical expenses for student athletes “to

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