SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is urging players to get vaccinated while warning that games will be forfeited instead of rescheduled due to COVID-19 in 2021.
Unlike in 2020, when the schedule was topsy-turvy to accommodate games impacted by COVID-19, the SEC is not planning to reschedule games in 2021.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey made that clear at SEC Media Days on Monday, saying games will be forfeited instead of rescheduled if a team has too few players available because of coronavirus quarantines.
For six of the 14 teams in the conference, that shouldn’t be an issue. Those programs have already reached the vaccination threshold of 80 percent, so their risk of being hit hard by COVID-19 in 2021 is relatively low.
However, there are still eight teams that haven’t had 80 percent or more of their players vaccinated.
The SEC is pushing for more players to be vaccinated ahead of the season
“That number needs to grow and grow rapidly,” Sankey said, per Matt Hayes of Stadium.
Several 2020 games had to be moved because of coronavirus-ravaged rosters. Alabama had two games postponed to December. LSU had three. It was hard to keep track of which games would be played and when.
The good news is the pandemic has slowed down considerably since last fall. The bad news is variants of COVID-19 are causing a new wave of concern.
The politicization of vaccines hasn’t helped matters.
The health of players is obviously the top priority, but that goes hand-in-hand with ensuring teams have the necessary players available to play the games on their schedule. While vaccinated players could still contract the virus, they’re less likely to get it or, critically, spread it if they’ve received the vaccine.
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