SEC football talk, news and discussion.
LSU has got one of its best defensive lineman back after he opted out earlier in the summer. Defensive end Neil Farrell Jr, who had 46 tackles, 3 sacks, 7 tackles for loss and a forced fumble in 15 games opted out after his grandmother was ill this summer. He’s back in now. That will help Ed Orgeron, who recently saw reserve DL Nelson Jenkins decide to opt out of the season.
Read moreThe 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
Read moreThe 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
Read moreThe 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
Read moreThe 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
Read moreThe powers-that-be at the SEC have decided on a ten-game, conference-only schedule for 2020. Although there have been no schedule released – we can probably expect them to come next week. The decision meant that the season will start on September 26th – a month after Big 12 and three weeks after the Big Ten. South Carolina Board of Trustees member Chuck Allen told The Athletic (via Twitter): “My understanding is the vote was 13-1 with our president, Bob Caslen, being the sole dissenting vote and part of the reason for his dissenting vote was the rivalry with Clemson.” Either the SEC is waiting for another month to try and ‘get’ the numbers lower, or they are stupid. Why stupid?
Read moreOhio State put out what their plan for college football games should be during games. Capacity will be capped at 20%. The capacity at The Horseshoe will be no more than 20,988 at any one time. There will be no tailgating. Face covering will be required at games. Now, while you can enforce the first one, stopping 20,000 people going into local Columbus bars before games isn’t an option, so you’ll have to trust them. You can enforce the third one, by either supplying Ohio State facemasks at the game or not letting people who won’t wear them or booting those who persistently don’t wear them during the game. The SEC should do the same. Yes, we know that
Read moreAnd so the dominos continue to fall. According to multiple media sources, the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 have all decided that they will play a nine-game conference-only season It is an effort to cut down the season and make it work, as well as give schools some wiggle-room if there an outbreak of COVID-19 on teams and campuses. For the SEC a bunch of non-conference games will be affected, including (sadly), Clemson vs South Carolina, Georgia vs Georgia Tech, Louisville vs Kentucky and Florida State vs Florida. Notre Dame have been told that the ACC will accommodate Notre Dame in its own schedule. For the Big Ten the biggest match-ups being lost are Notre Dame’s game with Wisconsin, Penn
Read moreThe Ivy League has cancelled its fall sports. Not postponed, cancelled. Everyone in college football is taking a breath, now. You might think that a bunch of rich schools cancelling sports isn’t a big thing. After all: Harvard? Yale? Who cares. They aren’t going pro on ESPN or anything (unless they are Ryan Fitzpatrick)… But remember the Ivy League in March? They were the first to cancel their tournament because of COVID-19, and it created a domino effect that led to the cancellation of March Madness. Could this happen in college football with the Ivy League schools taking these extraordinary measures? Yes and no. The ‘Yes’ is the fact that what the Ivy League is very good at getting out
Read moreThree Auburn players have tested positive for the novel Coronavirus, the school has said. The players – as usual with these cases – have not been named – are isolating themselves from the team. The Auburn news is hardly a surprise in the State of Alabama, which has been furiously opening up. Last week five Alabama players tested positive for COVID-19.
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