JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Southeastern Conference pushed back the start of its fall preseason practice schedule but remained on track for games in the final week of September, it announced Tuesday.
The first practices will now be held Aug. 17, 10 days later than what the SEC would have started if games were beginning on time.
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The first games will be held Sept. 26. The conference announced last week that it was playing a 10-game, conference-only schedule in 2020 due to the coronavirus. A new football schedule has not been released by the league yet.
Under the revised calendar, schools can conduct 14 hours of strength and conditioning, meetings and walk-throughs from Aug. 7-16.
Under the new calendar, SEC teams can begin Aug. 17 and are allowed 25 practices with a limit of 20 hours per week of practice time. The SEC said that its calendar provides athletes more days off and fewer practices than currently required by the NCAA.
The moves come in the wake of a July 29 meeting that SEC players held with conference leaders and medical advisers, of which a recording was obtained by The Washington Post.
According to the Post’s report, players weren’t reassured about the SEC’s plans and felt like their safety wasn’t being given the proper respect.
“There are going to be outbreaks,” one official told players on the call. “We’re going to have positive cases on every single team in the SEC. That’s a given. And we can’t prevent it.”