Where each SEC team currently stands regarding June 8 return to voluntary workouts
The SEC approved on Friday a plan to allow teams to have athletes return to campuses on June 8 for voluntary workouts.
Quickly, a number of the 14 schools in the conference hopped on board with the plan, followed by others. But there are still a couple of holdouts for the plan.
As you can see below, 9 teams announced plans to return shortly after the announcement was made public by the SEC:
SEC voluntary workouts (at this minute)
Returning June 8: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Missouri, Texas A&M, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia
Undecided: Kentucky
Quiet: Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) May 22, 2020
Vanderbilt remains TBD as it continues to follow the university's "return to campus plan."
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) May 22, 2020
After those tweets, Mississippi State and Ole Miss both issued statements indicating they’d welcome athletes back on June 8:
A message from @KeithCarterOM on today's SEC decision.#HottyToddy 🔵🔴
Full Statement ➡️ https://t.co/e4mOWBGkBJ pic.twitter.com/RvAmpzRB3t
— Ole Miss Athletics (@OleMissSports) May 22, 2020
A message from Mississippi State Athletics and @JohnCohenAD:#HailState🐶 pic.twitter.com/NJ9l6Y6wPS
— Mississippi State Athletics (@HailState) May 22, 2020
That leaves Kentucky and Vanderbilt as the only 2 SEC schools not to officially announce a decision at this time. We’ll see what happens with those schools moving forward.
The schools just need to make sure they have all of their protocols and testing equipment in place. Everyone is sharing info so best practices should be fairly uniform.
I wonder what the Protocol will be when One(1) Player on the team tests positive ? There has not been any definitive proposal that I’ve read about. Needs to be in place A.S.A.P. This needs to be addressed.
The only choice is to isolate him and test everyone he has come in contact with. Are there actually any other options?
Isolate and test for sure but if 1 player is positive most likely every player and coach has been exposed. Then the team honestly can continue to work as usual because they are all already exposed. They are only a threat to outsiders would seem. I would assume the teams are housing the players during the summer so they are all quarantined together so business as usual. Be interesting but I am sure their are plans in place even if they have not been shared with the public.
I highly doubt Vanderbilt will be functioning at a point where they can have a real presence with returning football players. Nashville’s mayor has a lengthy process in place that still prevents mass gatherings. The first date where more than 25 people can assemble in a gym or similar facility will be well past June 8. I think the earliest possible date would be June 22, and that’s only if the moving average of cases does not increase in any part of the next four weeks.
Vanderbilt could work out off campus outside of Davidson County, but housing would not be available. There is no guarantee that Vanderbilt will have on campus classes in August either.