SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey “Shaken But Not Deterred” By This Week’s COVID-19 Outbreaks

Sankey relays plan to reschedule postponed games

The SEC faces it’s most difficult challenge of the 2020 season. COVID-19 has affected its fair share of conference games this season but this week reached an unprecedented level, one that the SEC will have a tremendously difficult time navigating.

Georgia-Missouri, Texas A&M-Tennessee and Mississippi State-Auburn have all met a similar fate as LSU-Alabama this week with all four games being postponed. Conference commissioner Greg Sankey is at the forefront of the impending decisions and is admittedly a little flustered. 

“I’m shaken but not deterred,” Sankey told reporters Wednesday. “We recognized back in the summer that there would be the need to adjust. We provided opportunities for that. Those are not infinite opportunities, but we acknowledge the likelihood of adjustment."

Sankey said that the conference believes the biggest challenge this season hasn't been the number of positive tests within the conference, but rather the players affected through contact tracing. 

The immediate step is how the conference can plan around rescheduling the postponed matchups and Sankey said that the maneuvering it will require will impact most conference teams. 

“The best way to answer that is to adjust,” Sankey said. “We moved several games that involved several teams, that’s going to be the reality moving forward, the movement will affect more than just the involved teams. Almost two and a half, three half weeks ago on Friday, we moved I think five or six games. It affected the involved teams which report in Vanderbilt, and then it affected Georgia, Kentucky. Come to the top of mind, LSU was in that as well. And that’s going to be the reality moving forward and the ability to adjust game, and modify the schedule and we’ve said this to our membership repeatedly, will affect more than just the involved teams.”

Over the last few days, fans have speculated on different schedule possibilities for the LSU-Alabama matchup. Coach Ed Orgeron has expressed the program's desire to see the rivalry game with the Crimson Tide played this season. One popular option is to play Alabama on Nov. 21 and schedule the Arkansas game for Dec. 19, which would impact Alabama's scheduled game with Kentucky. 

That goes hand in hand with what Sankey described as the process carrying over to multiple conference programs. Sankey said Wednesday the conference remains devoted to playing the SEC Championship on Dec. 19, meaning that the rest of the conference games would need to be finished. 

Contenders like Florida, Alabama and Texas A&M will want to play as close to 10 conference games as possible but Sankey doesn't believe the College Football Playoff committee will hold it against the conference if, for example, Alabama's game with LSU can't be rescheduled. 

The next week we should know more about what the conference plans to do in terms of rescheduling. The amount of maneuvering it will take will likely significantly chance the Tigers’ schedule.