Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey said that his level of concern about the feasibility of a football season is “high to very high,” adding that the SEC will decide the fate of their fall sports calendar in late July, in a Saturday morning ESPN Radio appearance.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 decided this week to cancel their non-conference games, opting instead to play only in-conference games. The Ivy League also cancelled all fall sports on Wednesday in the hope of moving the seasons to the spring. The Big 12, ACC and SEC haven’t yet made any official decisions.
All 14 SEC athletic directors will meet in-person on Monday at league headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama, to discuss fall sports schedules, reported Sports Illustrated.
“That literally is playing out in front of us every day,” Sankey told ESPN. “That’s why I don’t feel any pressure because of somebody else’s decisions.”
In an appearance on WWL Radio, Head Coach Ed Orgeron said that LSU Football has the virus “under control.” Sports Illustrated recently reported that at least 30 players were quarantined after either testing positive or encountering someone who tested positive for the virus. Orgeron said that multiple players contracted the virus in Tigerland bars on the weekend gatherings that resulted in over 100 positive tests.
Still, Orgeron said he expects to play football this fall, but he acknowledged that the decision is out of his control.
“As a head coach you can say this, you can say that,” Orgeron said. “We’re not going to make this decision (as head coaches). So I’m not going to say anything, because I know that whatever I say, it’s not my decision. The powers that be are going to make that decision. So I’m going to sit back and do everything that we can.”