Well, the summer question has an answer, at least the first draft of one.
The SEC plans to play soccer this fall with 10 conference games beginning in late September. The news announced Thursday was the blueprint for the plan or a scheme with more to come.
So what does it mean for Alabama? And what questions remain?
To simplify this, we’ll break down by topic and question for the Crimson Tide soccer quick guide on this unusual season.
Schedule?
That is the most obvious, unresolved or unpublished news. Alabama was originally slated to open the Labor Day weekend against USC in Arlington, Texas. That obviously changed on July 11 when the Pac-12 became the second league to go to the conference alone.
Well, the second game was supposed to be on September 12 against Georgia State in Tuscaloosa. That obviously is a non-conference game.
The SEC’s first game was scheduled for Sept. 19 with Georgia visiting Bryant-Denny Stadium. Since the season won’t start until the following Saturday, September 26, it’s unclear if that game will be delayed by a week.
Georgia was the first of eight SEC games in the pre-COVID schedule. How the other two opponents are determined is the biggest unknown.
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Sports Illustrated reported Thursday night that the SEC would schedule games between divisions “using the force of the schedule” instead of the next two teams in each school’s rotation. In the Alabama case, that would have been Florida and Vanderbilt, but that model doesn’t appear to be in the works.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey on the Paul Finebaum Show said they were still working on the programming models, but that their first priority was to announce the framework of the plan.
There will be two free weeks included in the schedule, including December 12, the Saturday before the SEC championship game is scheduled for December 19 in Atlanta. Then, tentatively, the Iron Bowl would be on December 5 at Bryant-Denny Stadium unless the previously scheduled order of play was shuffled.
How about the fans?
No one expects full stadiums right now, but how many fans could be admitted to SEC games this fall? That has been another subtopic of the summer and there are no firm plans yet.
Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne, however, received an update in an email sent to season ticket holders Thursday afternoon.
“While we do not have specific information to share regarding the stadium’s overall capacity at this time, we know it will be significantly reduced,” Byrne wrote.
Ticket holders will be notified by email before August 6 (next Thursday) with their options, he said.
Byrne wrote to fans a day earlier detailing the financial problems on the horizon while asking for their continued support with donations.
The stadium?
Thursday’s news of a delayed start to the season is welcome at the workplace that is Bryant-Denny Stadium.
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The tight schedule’s $ 107 million renovation project was delayed by two coronavirus outbreaks in late May and again in late June / early July. Construction work didn’t have much wiggle room when it began Monday after Alabama’s last regular-season game last November.
September 12 was the house’s original opening date, so at least two additional weeks were added to the end of the construction timeline with the season beginning on September 26.
Practice?
The modified NCAA guidelines for preseason practice establish specific dates for return to the field. For the teams that were opening the competition on Labor Day weekend, August 7 was the opening date for large-scale practices.
Now that the SEC games will start three weeks later, what does that mean for that practice framework?
For now, there doesn’t seem to be a change in that timeline. From July 24 to August. 6, the teams were allowed 20 hours of athletic activity, including tours, weight training, and film studio.
Gaming contracts?
What about those other three non-conference games with Georgia State, Kent State and Tennessee-Martin?
Alabama was to pay a combined total of $ 3.55 million to those three schools for their participation in the games scheduled for Tuscaloosa. Alabama still owe that money? It depends, but there is a 60-word clause in those deals that could get Alabama off the hook for those payments. The force majeure clause allows the agreement to be terminated, essentially, by an “act of God”.
There were different views on how the SEC version of that clause would be interpreted by the courts if any dispute went that far.
But this situation is still evolving for hours, so any speculation about that would be premature and not exactly close to top priorities, as a new season schedule is assigned in the more unusual college football season.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or in Facebook.
