SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey announced Thursday afternoon that SEC fall sports, including cross country, soccer, volleyball, golf and tennis, would receive new start dates, scheduling, and championship formats. This comes after the conference office had previously announced that cross country, soccer and volleyball would be suspended until at least Aug. 31.
The cross country season will begin on Sept. 11 and continue to Oct. 23. Teams will be limited to compete in a minimum of two events and a maximum of three in this span. The SEC Championships will be held in Baton Rouge, LA on Oct. 30.
Soccer will start on Sept. 18 and play to Nov. 8 for an eight-game regular season. Teams will play six divisional opponents and two non-divisional opponents. The SEC Tournament will be held in Orange Beach, AL, from Nov. 13-22. Every team will be guaranteed two games in the tournament.
Volleyball will run from Oct. 16 to Nov. 27, with a total of eight matches over six weeks of play. Teams will play against four different opponents, playing the same opponent twice in the same weekend.
Golf and tennis will abide by similar rules. Both sports will require teams to wait until Oct. 1 for competition to begin. There is a limit of three total team events for the season, and teams will be restrained to playing in events that are SEC-exclusive or constrained to only non-conference teams from the team’s geographic region.
The conference office also announced that fall practice and intra-squad scrimmages for baseball and softball would continue as planned, but exhibition games against other schools would not be allowed.
The SEC had previously announced the football season will begin on Sept. 26. Each team will play 10 conference games, with six games against division opponents and four against non-division opponents.