SEC could play even if other conferences don’t because it just means more

Even if some conferences can’t play the college football season on time, it sounds like the SEC will play no matter what because it just means more.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey remains optimistic there will be a united front when it comes to conferences resuming college football activities but it’s not mandatory for his conference to get started.

Sankey was on Jacksonville radio station 1010 XL when he said different conferences have the freedom to make different decisions.

“If there’s a couple of programs that aren’t able, does that stop everyone? I’m not sure it does,” he said. “But the ability for us to stay connected will remain important.”

Florida head coach Dan Mullen said earlier in the week he was hopeful for a college football season but stopped short of saying he was optimistic. That’s an understandable feeling. Optimism isn’t going to kill the virus. Hope, however, will help people navigate the uncertainty that has resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic.

All college football fans hope there will be a season unaffected by this and fans will be in the stands and everything will return to normal.

That may happen in some pockets of the country but may not in others where the outbreak has been more severe.

In SEC country, a soft reopening has begun in Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina while Missouri, Texas, Florida and Alabama are expected to see their shelter in place orders come to an end shortly.

That leaves Louisiana, Arkansas and Kentucky as the SEC states who are expected to still have restrictions in place.

What if Alabama can play but LSU can’t? What if Ole Miss can play but Arkansas can’t? What if Kentucky can’t play?

Those are all questions still in play and there are no answers. Would LSU play all road games? Would they be in a bubble on campus while the rest of the student body is sheltering in place? Would there be a special waiver the players and coaches need to sign in order to be able to play?

Are they just removed from the schedule entirely? Would teams need to fill that team on their schedule? What if a team’s playoff chances are hurt because their strength of schedule is negatively affected by losing an LSU game? There is a rabbit hole of follow-up questions that exist.

Sankey, to his credit, is saying and doing the right thing by making sure hope is not enough to beat this virus and extreme measures still need to be taken in order for a chance at a college football season.

"“Our hope is that people continue to pursue the healthy course — or taking what I would consider to be radical measures now so that we can get through this, learn treatments, figure out how to manage ourselves socially and then get back to some type of normal function sooner rather than later.“Hope is not a plan, but right now the desire would be to have 11 states and 14 institutions moving forward in a collective manner and, like I said, connected nationally so that we can celebrate the return of college sports.”"

So while programs in the state of California may have many hurdles to clear to get student-athletes back on the field which could lead to all sorts of issues and contingency plans for the Pac-12. And while other programs in other parts of the country may see college football look a lot different than we’re used to, it sounds like Sankey is acting as if it’ll be business as usual.

Considering how much money is on the line for the SEC programs and the universities, they’ll do everything in their power to make sure the games go on.

Maybe we’ll see a College Football Playoff entirely made up of SEC teams.

It just means more.

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