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Will 2020 SEC Media Days be canceled due to COVID-19?

By Patrick Schmidt

NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 13: Greg Sankey the new commissioner of the SEC talks to the media before the quaterfinals of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 13, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 13: Greg Sankey the new commissioner of the SEC talks to the media before the quaterfinals of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 13, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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2020 SEC Media Days could be in jeopardy due to the coronavirus pandemic, but if it’s not canceled, it could be very different from how fans remember.

SEC Media Days serves as the unofficial kickoff to the college football season, but it could be in jeopardy this July due to the ongoing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2020 SEC Media Days are scheduled to take place from July 13-16 inside the College Football Hall of Fame and Omni Atlanta Hotel at the CNN Center in Atlanta, GA.

There is still time before a formal decision and announcement need to be made but with several events being canceled in the late spring and early summer months, it’s a possibility the SEC Media Days get postponed or canceled. If the Olympics can postpone the Toyko Olympics a year, surely SEC Media Days can close the doors for a year. The Tokyo Olympics were scheduled to begin on July 23 and run through Aug. 8.

It may not be canceled entirely, but if it can’t be held inside the Omni Atlanta Hotel where 1,000-plus credentialed media and fans have gathered, it may be a virtual event.

Each of the 14 SEC schools bring their head coach and three players for the four-day event with each school only having their media availability on one of the four days. With all these coaches, players, media and fans gathered in one central location, it will be impossible to move forward with such an event if social distancing guidelines are still in place.

Perhaps, SEC Media Days will take place with each school setting up a Zoom conference call and fielding questions from media as if it was a teleconference, which is a weekly staple during the season.

President Trump extended the social distancing guidelines through April 30, moving off his Easter Sunday date when he wanted to open up the economy. Governors have intimated the April 30 date is not an end date, but a date that will lead to further evaluation which could extend the social distancing guidelines for another month.

The better everyone practices social distancing and adheres to the CDC guidelines, the better chance we have of having a college football season this fall and all that comes with it. If people aren’t taking this seriously and aren’t obeying social distancing guidelines, the risk of extending social distancing increases significantly and the chance of not having a college football season or SEC Media Days or anything increases.

While ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit is pessimistic we have a season and Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is optimistic because Americans walked on the moon and stormed the beaches of Normandy, no one knows anything. The best we can do is listen to the medical experts and CDC. If we do our part, SEC Media Days, the college football season and everything else we love will return later this year.

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