Watch now:
NCAA Approves General Exemption Allowing Teams to Play at Week Zero
(1:24)
The same day the ACC announced that its soccer teams will play an 11-game season that includes a 10-game conference schedule and a non-conference game, the SEC reportedly took a step to find its own way to play soccer. American college this fall. The league is “getting closer” to playing a 10-game conference for the 2020 season only, according to Illustrated Sportsit’s Ross Dellinger.
Reached by multiple media comment, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey declined to determine whether a single schedule for the conference was really the league’s leader in the clubhouse at the moment. “It is not appropriate to respond to anonymous sources and speculation,” he said. “We continue our discussions focused on the return of fall sports, including soccer. We will announce any decisions at the appropriate time.”
A SEC conference-only schedule could make ACC’s plans to play a game without a conference, which is required to be played in the local state of its member schools, less attractive, given that several of the games without a conference ACC schools are slated to play against SEC Schools: Florida-Florida State, Clemson-South Carolina, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Kentucky-Louisville.
“It was something that was considered very strongly in our move to go to all 11 games [schedule]”Miami athletic director Blake James said of the rivalry games.
However, the SEC’s idea of programming was only approved by most of the league’s athletic directors, according to Dellenger, and may have come before the conference knew that the ACC had decided to open up the possibility of playing games without conference. SEC presidents are scheduled to debate the matter on Thursday and could vote on a calendar or postpone a decision to next week.
Sankey has publicly declared a target date in late July for the league to set up a structure for the 2020 season. That would give the SEC until the end of the week to make a decision. Setting itself to a 10-game conference-only schedule would reflect a plan that is reportedly being finalized by the Pac-12.
For Power Five conferences, crafting a plan for soccer this week could be critical to the viability of a 2020 season, as the NCAA Board of Governors will meet on August 4. At that time, you could vote to cancel your fall championships.
While that would not affect the FBS or the College Football Playoff, the elimination of the fall championships would leave the sport on a figurative island, since such a decision would eliminate the postseasons for FCS, Division II and Division III soccer, among others. sports.
