Would we be OK with a season in which the only prize was an SEC Championship? Absolutely
What once seemed like a message board fantasy could now become a college football reality.
Could the SEC really just have its own season that doesn’t end with a national championship?
That’s what’s potentially on the table with the Big Ten and Pac-12 reportedly set to cancel the fall season. A 2020 season with just 3 Power 5 conferences (ACC, Big 12 and SEC) could exist. Or perhaps, could the SEC be the last one standing if all the other Power 5 conferences pull the plug on a fall season in 2020? I wouldn’t bet on the latter scenario, but I also wouldn’t rule out anything these days.
Would it be a true national championship? No, but would an SEC program still try to claim it as such? Um, absolutely.
Yes, SEC fans would be OK with this. Yes, the SEC would suddenly go from public enemy No. 1 to America’s conference.
You know, just in case you thought 2020 wasn’t weird enough.
If you don’t think that’s a possibility, perhaps you missed the AL.com report that the SEC was “holding firm” regardless of what the Big Ten decided. Even Paul Finebaum, who has stated doubt about a college football season at numerous points, said this on “Get Up” on Monday morning.
“As far as pushback, yes there is plenty of pushback,” Finebaum said on the show. “I talked to an SEC source yesterday who said, ‘We’re still planning on playing. We have our schedule release coming up in a couple of days.’
“Remember, Friday night the SEC released the two additional conference games, so it just shows the incredible disconnect that we’ve talked about for three months, that is now mushroomed and has literally put everything on edge. As someone else told me early this morning, the college football season is not dead, it’s just on life support right now.”
The whole point of delaying the start of the season to Sept. 26 was so that it wouldn’t be forced to make a definitive decision in early August like the Big Ten reportedly did.
The Big Ten failed in its plan of returning to camp, which it just did last week, only to bail on said plan before ever really testing it. There’s no guarantee that the SEC plays a fall season, but moving camp back to Aug. 17 now looks like a wise move to increase those odds of happening. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey doubled down on that on Monday afternoon:
Picture this scenario.
Let’s say the Big Ten and Pac-12, AKA the little brother without any power, elect for a spring season while the Big 12, ACC and SEC play in the fall but without a Playoff. If anything, that SEC Championship would have a national title-like feel. Forget the confetti and trophy ceremony. There would be full-on parades for this thing. Shoot, you’d probably have fans from across the country showing up at the victory parade just to pretend like their team won a championship.
Look, we can do this right here. Ohio State fans become Alabama fans, Michigan fans become Tennessee fans, Rutgers fans become Vandy fans, etc.
And to take a step back, think about how massive Florida-Georgia, Alabama-LSU, Alabama-Georgia and Florida-LSU would feel. Boom. Those are your Playoff quarterfinal games. The SEC Championship is truly for all the marbles, and not just in an “It Just Means More” sort of way.
The crazy thing is that Alabama could go 9-1 in this year, miss out on playing for an SEC Championship but claim a national title and it would still be more worthy than that 1941 squad. But hey, if that’s the biggest annoyance by the end of 2020, I’ll take it. Gladly.
The idea of anyone playing college football this fall still seems like more of a wish than a certainty. Seeing reports of unprecedented Power 5 cancelations finally made it real. For much of these past 5 months, the focus was supposed to be on putting together the proper safety protocols to not make such a drastic decision.
But during that time, Big Ten went rogue and announced its conference-only schedule … even though none of the other Power 5 commissioners knew that was happening after their daily meetings. Now, perhaps it’s the SEC that goes rogue and decides that it actually wants to see its protocols through instead of punting.
Can you imagine how far out the SEC would puff its chest?
Fans would deal with a somewhat subdued game atmosphere in the event that stadiums are at 20% capacity. Would it take getting used to? For sure, especially if those games were some of the only football that the average fan would see on a fall Saturday.
By the way, can we take a step back and think about the recruiting dominance and league branding if the SEC did safely have a college football season while several other Power 5 conferences didn’t? I mean, I know the SEC had 7 of the top 10 recruiting classes in 2020, but dare I say, it could get even more lopsided? Is that even possible? It’s not like recruits can visit campuses yet. All many can probably do is sit at home and watch college football on Saturdays.
If Monday was any indication, buckle up. Shoot, if you didn’t get nauseous from the college football roller coaster the past 3 days, you’ve got a tougher stomach than I have.
This thing has already gone completely off the rails. Who knows what the next dip or turn is. Reports indicate that the SEC isn’t in any hurry to get off the ride.
If that ride lasts until January, we’re in for quite the thrill.
Be “OK” is exactly the right feeling.
I am ok with that.
If the SEC does play, I think the ACC and Big 12 will also. If a couple of G5 conferences do also, we could still have a playoff. That would be the ultimate stick in the eye to the Big 10. I suspect that conference will then be looking for a new commissioner.
I agree… I don’t see the CFP stopping of the PAC or B1G decides not to play.. There is still more than enough teams to select from..
Totally agree!
Probably already looking around for a new Commish.
The myocardial issues are going to make all of our lives much harder, not just football players. I read the JAMA Cardiology article of July 27, 2020. It is available free online.
This is quite distrubing:
“In this cohort study including 100 patients recently recovered from COVID-19 identified from a COVID-19 test center, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging revealed cardiac involvement in 78 patients (78%) and ongoing myocardial inflammation in 60 patients (60%), which was independent of preexisting conditions, severity and overall course of the acute illness, and the time from the original diagnosis.”
Myocardial inflammation is usually something that affects 1-3% of people that have viral infections. 60% is way off the charts dangerous, and I am sure that many Covid deaths have been as a result of cardiac arrest. At one point, there were news snippets saying that deaths were being listed as Covid when they were heart attacks and strokes. Now, it may actually be the case.
Now, everybody that show antibodies for Covid might need to have a cardiological exam to then proceed with proper treatment.
This is what the conference commissioners must now have to deal with. Think of what the repercussions might be if an SEC player dies as a result of dilated cardiomyopathy or cardiac arrest.
If 30 players on a team have had Covid, and 60% have cardiac inflammation, that comes to 18 players. In the normal population, eventual death from cardiomyopathy is 12-15%, and that’s for patients that take medication and avoid physical stress. The medication would for the most part make it unable for football players to have the necessary energy to play football games, and the strenuous exercise could lead to additional potentially fatal issues like the ventricular tachycardia that ended basketball player Hank Gather’s life on the court during the middle of a game.
Put yourselves in Greg Sankey’s shoes. Are 3 SEC football players dying acceptable numbers for playing football this Fall?
Wait until you see the FRB’s recommendations on the economy. The consensus is to bring the economy back in line we need a full shutdown of 30-45 days to bring testing in line.
All this is just crazy.
That’s nuts and is not going to happen. The US is not shutting the economy down for 30 days at this point. We are way past that.
You were the one that also called everyone crazy for saying..”there wouldn’t be a season.” But here we are again..
Where are we. The SEC is still planning on playing. You should wait until I’m actually wrong to boast.
So what’s it gonna turn out to be? Only the SEC will play this Fall? Give it up..The country as a whole ruined any chance at College Athletics. It’s going to happen. If anything, The SEC will be the last Conference to cancel their season… Jeopardy music begins to play softly in the background………
Stick with the Big 10 and PAC 12. The three major conferences are still planning on playing. I’m not wrong, yet. You’re like the Big 10, jumping the gun.
I agree but the BLM is going to destroy America! Burning, rioting, a looting!
I cannot see a college football season taking place without the Rose Bowl. That alone is reason to scrap the season.
I sure hope you’re correct.
I have never cared about the Rose Bowl. Two sissy run conferences that don’t want to put forth their best effort to play. The only time the Rose Bowl is important is when they are hosting the playoffs.
C’mon now..You’re ONLY saying that because of where we are today.. Now don’t get me wrong..Did I care about the Rose Bowl, before Texas all but kicked everyone out of the Big XII? No..Nope I didn’t. But!!!!!! What major Bowl beside the Peach Bowl does the SEC have a tie in with? Wait.. The Outback Bowl is a New Years Day Bowl (so that get’s credit).. There are four original bowls that has to be played.. Sugar, Orange, Fiesta and Rose… The Sugar Bowl can be claimed as SEC tie-in ONLY because there has always been a top 7 SEC team worthy of the at large bid there.. Your response is borderline crazy….
*gets credit
Yeah, that’s all completely b.s.
Every single respiratory illness carries with it the risk of reduced lung capacity and sympathetic cardiac issues.
EVERY SINGLE RESPIRATORY ILLNESS.
Even an URI.
FFS dude, DBAP.
You usually post nothing but crap.
to be honest, your comments on this site have led me to hate the Dawgs more than I ever thought possible.
but we have found common ground on this topic.
there IS a “virus”, but it is being used for political gain and is not as deadly as cnn wants it to be
wwgowga
In Greg Sankey’s world, three SEC players on average die over the course of three years and we’ve had higher numbers than that. These articles are a dime a dozen. They are part of the cancel culture that always support athletics as being, “too toxic” and should be discontinued. This kind of nonsense articles are largely ignored by wise directors and commissioners. They know what their intended purpose is. Hot seats aren’t just for coaches. There’s a better chance of a player dying from escaping from lock-downs to party and party hard because “who knows when you can get away again”.
The thing that is disturbing is people like you throwing around halfass statistics.
What are the ages of the people in the study? Do any of them have pre-existing conditions? Are they physically in top shape?
There are states with zero deaths of people under 20 years old. Many states have 90% of the deaths are people over 60 years old with 50% mortality rate above 80 years old.
Get the rest of that info and stop telling half a story.
85 years old was the median age of the people in the study. That’s all you need to know right there.
Your assumptions about the % of players affected is already laughable. I’m assuming that study was of 100 people that recovered from a hospital and were most likely on respirators or had severe complications. The current hospitalization rate is .1%, and that’s including all age groups. The hospitalization rate for 18 and under is .008%. As soon as they do a study on asymptomatic patients between the age of 17 and 25, I’ll start paying attention.
You clearly didnt read the entire study because you conveniently left out some crucial information.
Results: Cardiac tissue from 39 consecutive autopsy cases were included. The median (interquartile range) age of patients was 85 (78-89) years.
These were the ultimate conclusions:
Overt fulminant myocarditis has been reported in isolated patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the current data indicate that the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in cardiac tissue does not necessarily cause an inflammatory reaction consistent with clinical myocarditis. The long-term consequences of this cardiac infection requires further investigation.
So, if the conferences, presidents, ADs, etc. are using this study as their new reasoning behind cancelling the season that is just WRONG.
Thank you!!!
Very enlightening information.
“Are 3 SEC football players dying acceptable numbers for playing football this Fall?”
Sadly, its probably going to take a players death for the $$$ addicts to stop the money train.
Stay scared.
If this virus has taught me anything it is you can’t believe anything you read these days. The real question is who funded the study?
“ Today I made an appearance downtown
I am an expert witness because I say I am
And I said gentlemen, and I use that world loosely
I will testify for you, I’m a gun for hire,I’m a saint, I’m a liar
Because there are no facts, there is no truth
Just data to be manipulated
I can get you any result you like
What’s it worth to you?” – Don Henley’s Garden of Allah
No potential CFP championship might alter teams approaches.
I can definitely see a team like Georgia, being in a tough spot. It means that they’ll lose Newman. So no matter where he ends up in reality (whether he’s a heisman contender or just another joe) it’d be his last year, and how does that really benefit Georgia?
In that case, you’d probably see way more of JT Daniels than you would have initially (or Dwan Mathis) and if Newman ends up being a heisman contender and Georgia makes it through 10-1 with an SEC title, it’ll always be the “what if there was a playoff” season.
I don’t know if that sits well with me…..
As a Vol fan, I agree with your logic here. We have the best O’line since the 90’s and a D thats pretty good too and its unconscionable for us Vol fans to even think they would never take the field this year.
If at least two P5 conferences and one G5 conference hold a season then it might be enough to have a “playoff”. But if not and if it’s just the SEC, then I would definitely be ok to just have an SEC champion. My gut tells me (which has been plenty wrong in the past) that no more than three P5 conferences will elect to cancel or postpone the season.
How about this proposal?
1. Postpone the NCAA football season until February and play it through June with the hope that the original pre-Covid 12 game schedules, playoffs, and bowls can be played.
2. Allow all players eligible to have played football in a regular 2020 season to remain eligible for the entire 2021 calendar year. In other words, a senior today can still be classified as a senior in 2021, not just for the Spring, but for the Fall as well.
3. Allow all early enrolled freshmen that are in class in January to be eligible in the Spring of 2021.
4. Play two seasons in 2021–Spring and Fall. Allow expanded rosters so that the Spring 2021 season would have players that would normally be in their final semester of high school and players that would have used up their eligibility this Fall. The rosters could then add the remaining high school recruits in August of 2021 for the regular 2021 season.
5. Allow the players that would have been eligible to declare for the 2021 NFL Draft 2 weeks to declare for an August 2020 Supplemental Draft, where if they are selected by an NFL team, they can play immediately. If they are not selected by an NFL team, they can return to their college team.
6. Move the 2021 draft to December, 2021. The old AFL used to conduct its annual draft in December. Once again, allow a supplemental draft for players to go to pro teams in August, 2021, with the same allowances that if not selected, they can return for the Fall 2021 season.
7. In order to allow for more than 99 players, don’t replicate numbers. Put triple digit numbers on uniforms.
Here are additional changes that in my opinion should be made during a potential long layoff.
A. Move Pass Interference back to the old rule. I hate that a defensive player can give up a 15-yard gain in lieu of a 50-yard gain by tackling a receiver about to catch a pass.
B. Ditch the stopping of the clock on first downs. This archaic rule was put into place before electronic scoreboards and fewer referees necessitated waiting until the chain crew caught up.
C. Add a 2-minute warning to both halves replacing the first down stoppages.
D. Use the NFL rule on when a player is down, so that he must be touched while down to be considered tackled. A slippery surface has oftentimes been the leading tackler in games. That’s pure baloney.
E. I like the AAF rule that replaced onside kicks. If a team scores, they should have the option of receiving the ball on their own 28 yard line with it being 4th & 12.
F. Move PATs to the 15 yard line like the NFL and make 2-point conversions from the 2 instead of the 3 yard line like the NFL. The original PAT rule was placed where it was at a time when there were no placekickers on rosters. A regular position player served as kicker (and punter too). Rosters were too small to include players that just kicked.
G. Consider a 3-point conversion where the team would have to score from the 15 yard line, and a 5-point field goal by moving the ball back to the 40 yard line if it is already inside the 40. Not many college kickers can hit from 57 yards.
I’m not sure if you intended to actually reply to me. However, I categorically disagree with postponing to a spring semester. That will negatively impact two seasons instead of just one. It would be better to just cancel the 2020 and resume operations like “normal” with regular spring practices in 2021.
A drastically shortened offseason and NFL draft preparations will cause many to sit out a spring season — to the point of killing a team’s roster. Loading up with 99+ man rosters will drastically lower the quality of the product, as would your proposals about early enrollees and high school seniors. The season will have even more asterisks next to stats and final outcomes than a modified 2020 fall season especially with all the custom roster and on-field rule changes.
Agreed. Those schools that say they’d wait till the Spring are only giving lip service to quell the pushback. They would cancel just after the holidays with all the ramifications you mentioned.
No spring season. If the fall season is canceled, just move on to the next fall. One question I have involves scholarship numbers. If the season is canceled, we will have an overlap in scholarships.
Talk about adding to the financial burden. That scholarship number increase is just not feasible for a lot of schools. For the ones that can, you still have an issue with the current recruiting class and not knowing who is coming back for sure.
I like some of your added rules. Especially the pass interference rule. That would eliminate all the bad calls on no-calls. If no one wants to go along with your plan for various reasons, one could always form a at large conference made up of schools that opt out of adhering to their conference should they play the cancel culture game. One person with possible political motivations should not be able to nullify player futures and possible financial compensation for trivial reasons and liability.
How about this proposal. You take your silly big ten ideas and go away.
LH Spring ball is a non-starter.
This is a fantastic idea.Especially when you consider the SEC didn’t flinch from certain media that put out fake rumors of secret meetings supposedly deciding to cancel the Big 10 and all power 5. The SEC takes this wait and see “whats actually occurred” approach and not mere media anti-football cancel culture tactics. Do not base your actions on what left leaning schools decide. If Ryan Day and Frost want to play in the SEC this year, the more the merrier. Want to bet they caught wind of this SEC mentality of ,”we are playing no matter and who does what” and wanted to be a part of that when they announced they’d love to play in the SEC this year if their conference cancels? You can also bet that if Sankey canned the conference, individual schools from the SEC along with others outside the conference would find a way to play. The NCAA nor the SEC Commission would penalize any of them. How would that age? Not well.
If the SEC (or any conference) went at it alone it wouldn’t at all be about football, it would be a 100% money grab, but otoh that’s also brilliant, opportunistic business.
Perhaps its not so much about making money as saving local businesses and jobs at a time when a lot of people are desperate.
That’s definitely a bi-product. But no way that’s a major concern to any University President or Conference Commish. If Universities were honestly concerned about local businesses and local jobs there would be no neutral site games like they’ve been adding more and more in recent years. It’s not like they’re giving the “extra” money they make back to the local business owners who missed out by not having the game in town, on campus.
Booches…It is about $$$$$ anyway. The number of US Dollars college football brings in -via- TV revenue/ticket sales/apparel sales/etc. is Billion$$$ and Without that football-revenue, 60%-75% of all the other college sports would be cancelled. College football is the ca$h cow for the athletic departments period. It is a business.
The news here reported that CFB is a 7 billion dollar industry… That’s a lot of money to toss away if the season can be played somehow..
If that money grab allows athletic departments around the SEC to continue to offer scholarships and operations for all the non-football, non-revenue sports then so be it.
Sacrificial lambs be dammed. But yeah that’s what I’m saying, it’s basically both a money grab and a good business opportunity.
news flash, business and cash flow rise out of what people like
wofman, it’s call a market system, not really a newsflash at all.
Let’s have football. While we have to be careful about COVID, we’ve learned a lot about the virus in the past 8 months. We know how to contain it, although it requires discipline. Football players generally cordon themselves off from the rest of college students anyway in most cases. That needs to continue, and even be taken up a notch. There are safe ways to restart college football.
If they do that, I’d like to see no crossover games then a tournament.
Success of an SEC only season might give the leagues more leverage against the power of the NCAA.
If the Big 10 cancels..no problem. I believe that the SEC, ACC, Big 12 will play…and we will have the Playoffs and a team from the Southeastern Conference will win another National Championship in 2020. The SEC is stronger this year than in the past 3-4 years…We’ll win it !
What’s the difference between SEC champ and national champ?
Yankees
Clemson, about half the time!
Nah. SEC 10 of the last 14. Try again.
Math isn’t his strong suit.
Conor does a great job of keeping the Southerners frothed up.
Not very difficult these days; when the majority of people believe the word of a gutless, snake oil salesmen over the head of the National Institutes of Health.
Same morons who were screaming that the Earth was flat 300 years ago.
Just newer pantaloons.
Yep. Political leaders and actions of the public at large is putting the season in jeopardy.
Yep. You two bringing politics in here is ridiculous. Y’all should just ridicule everyone that caught the virus because it is obvious they weren’t taking proper precautions. More fun for the liberals to crack on the president.
Some morons can’t spell. Some morons can’t understand the demographics of CV-19 where the average age of people who have died is 72. Some people…..
The only good football is in the SEC. The conference winner could play Clemson or OU in a bowl game. Hopefully, by New Year’s we will have thing thing figured out. Might be a good time to weed out all the crappy bowl games.
Imagine the recruiting advantage next year! “Ok, now you’re down to us or Ohio St. so remember last year when the B ONE GEE wimped out over the Kung Fu Flu? I hear there may be another flu season this year. Do you want to play in a league of MEN or soy boys”?
It would be nice to see the ACC or Big 12 join us but if not, I am perfectly fine with going it alone.
I like we are just assuming the quarter final games will be between Georgia, LSU, Bama, and Florida. Let’s just forget TAMU, Kentucky and Tennessee why don’t we
Be on the lookout for UCF claiming a natty if they don’t play and are undefeated. LOL
No one would be reading such a story let alone commenting had you just put a mask on back when, instead of floating down a river looking at pyramids. This is not completely Trump’s fault. A great deal of the fault falls on the ignorant that drink the kool aid he serves with one lie after another. He’s just a side show barker spouting lines to get you simpletons into the tent to see the freak show.
Idiotic.
Cancel it now, or wait until there are too many positive cases to field a team and cancel it then. Football is virtually a lock to get shut down by this disease. Baseball-the sport that offers the least amount of physical closeness and contact of all the Big 4 spectator sports- is already having trouble keeping people healthy. What chance is there for the sport with the most frequent physical contact (by a mile!) AND the largest rosters and players on-field together simultaneously? They will need entire spare rosters to replace all the players on 2-3-4 week quarantines. And medical experts don’t yet even fully understand what types of conditions will linger even after you’ve “recovered”. We’ve got a lot of people, understandably, whistling past the graveyard about this. But it can’t be wished away.
I expect the rest of the conferences, including the SEC, to follow suit. Football is big business and other power 5 conferences canceling just exponentially increases conferences who choose to play liability risks if things go south.
You can’t go through life scared. Well, evidently you can.
When our governor here in Florida went to Washington to make sure he and the great orange ones stories were straight the day before he reopened Florida I knew football was doomed. All the remnants of the Confederacy who just so happened to support the great orange one denied science didn’t listen to experts and claimed civil rights they didn’t have during a legally authorized constitutionally sound emergency order. Well how is that working out for you now. We may have got a two to three-week reprieve in the SEC but we’re still on death row. This could have been avoided 3 months ago with one more month I’m staying quote closed. But the great orange one and has enablers or only concerned about re-election. That is why we are here. Many of you on this thread are directly at fault also. Go Gators. Okay you may now start your condemnation of me.
Are you down in the basement with Joe? Help him find his way out so he can run for president.
If only the SEC ends up playing i say everybody plays everybody. Go by last years standings and the top 7 get the extra home game. Throw an off week or two in there and call it a season. If there even is fans it will be around 10-20k so who cares about home field. Top two play for SEC title regardless of divisions.
If any of these other programs want to secede from their conference for a season i think let them. I wouldn’t mind seeing how Ohio state would do playing our top 1-5 teams in a row.
In a weird year let’s get weird.
Will be a survival of the fittest week in and week out. I doubt the season will go longer than 3 weeks.
75 million people died of the Spanish Flu, 125 million died from the Black Plague, but not even 1 million people have died from from C-19 in 2020
Even more telling is our “every year” World-wide causes of death. 15 million heart disease, 3 million from obstructed pulmonary, Lung Cancer 1.7 million and 98% in smokers, diabetes 1.6%, much of that caused by behavior.
Notice how much we have reacted and changed our lives for Covid 19 and how little we have changed what we eat, the way we drive, smoking habits, etc.. It doesn’t make sense for us to continue to smoke and eat too much does it. But it makes a lot less sense for us to react to Covid 19 so disproportionately.
Play football, OR stop smoking, and driving fast, and eating sugary food, and doing illegal drugs, and a lot of other things that are killing more than Covid 19. This phenomenon is about 80% the creation of the uninformed or biased news media. Yes viruses are dangerous, No as a species we don’t react so dramatically to all these threats and if we are going to react we need to start with the most deadly first.
OTOH, no season means no need for SDS and Connor pushing a broom at Walmart. I’m ok with that too.
As a fan of UK football, I would totally be ok with our only prize being an SEC Championship this fall.