SEC Media Days will be conducted virtually this year due to COVID-19.
For the first time ever, SEC Media Days will take place in a virtual format.
On Wednesday morning, the SEC released a statement that the annual kickoff to college football originally scheduled to be at the College Football Hall of Fame and the Omni Atlanta Hotel from July 13 to 16 will now have to be done virtually because of the global pandemic at hand.
“Conducting football media days in a virtual format will provide us the opportunity to manage the event in a healthy manner as we continue to be impacted by COVID-19, and will provide flexibility for our programs to adjust their preparation for the 2020 football season according to the preseason calendar that is expected to be expanded due to the cancellation of the spring football season,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. “We look forward to returning to our traditional media days format in 2021.”
The virtual event will still feature Commissioner Sankey’s “State of the SEC” address, as well as all 14 head coaches and select student-athletes meeting with the media, per usual. The SEC Network will cover the entire event, but dates and times for SEC Virtual Football Media Days have not been announced at this time.
SEC Media Days 2020 will be of the virtual variety instead of in Atlanta.
SEC Media Days is the most hyped and most successful sessions with the media in the lead-up to the college football season. For years, it had taken place at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham – The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama, just outside of the conference’s headquarters in Birmingham. The SEC had recently adopted a three-city rotation between Atlanta, Birmingham and Nashville.
With SEC Media Days going virtual this year, it could amplify the amount of people covering the event, or it could also shrink it. While physical space at the College Football Hall of Fame and the Omni Atlanta Hotel are finite, have you ever been part of a 300-plus person Zoom call? It can be challenging, but what isn’t these days? Either way, we must embrace the new format for 2020.
This will be the first SEC Media Days for four of the 14 head coaches with Eliah Drinkwitz at Missouri, Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, Mike Leach at Mississippi State and Sam Pittman at Arkansas. For the other 10 coaches, this isn’t their first rodeo at this major media event. Though it will be conducted differently, look for the soundbites and the television coverage to be spectacular.
SEC Media Days will still happen, but will be done in a different manner virtually this year.
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