SEC announces new dates, formats for non-football fall sports
By Keith Farner
Published:
Football isn’t the only fall sport across the SEC facing a change in schedule and format. The other fall sports, like cross country, soccer, volleyball, golf and tennis are now adjusting to a new setup that the league announced on Thursday.
The SEC announced in July that the sports of cross country, soccer and volleyball would be postponed through at least Aug. 31.
The SEC men’s and women’s cross-country season will be a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 3 competitions prior to the SEC Championship in Baton Rouge on Oct. 30. The season will take place between Sept. 11 and Oct. 23 and may include competition against non-conference opponents provided those schools adhere to SEC COVID-19 testing protocols.
The SEC soccer season will be an 8-match, conference-only regular season over 8 weeks of competition beginning Sept. 18, followed by the SEC Championship, Nov. 13-22, in Orange Beach, Alabama. All 14 schools will compete in the SEC Championship with each team guaranteed at least 2 matches.
The SEC volleyball season will be an eight-match, conference-only schedule over 6 weeks of competition beginning Oct. 16 with each school competing against 4 opponents twice in the same weekend on back-to-back days.
SEC soccer and volleyball teams will participate in spring competition as well, with details of formats contingent on final decisions by the NCAA to conduct spring championships in those sports.
For the fall portion of the men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis seasons, SEC teams may compete in up to 3 team events beginning no earlier than Oct. 1. SEC golf and tennis teams will be limited to events involving only SEC members or non-conference teams from the geographic region of the SEC school.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
