With football approaching, SEC will need to require players and fans to be vaccinated

Greg Sankey laid down the law Monday. The SEC commissioner gave his annual state-of-the-league address at the conference’s annual Football Kickoff in Hoover, Ala. The usual public relations positivity was accompanied by a stark truth.

Sankey reported that just six of the SEC’s 14 football teams were 80 percent vaccinated. And UK confirmed that Mark Stoops’ team is not one of the six that has met the 80 percent threshold.

“That number needs to grow and grow rapidly,” said the commissioner. “It’s not a political football.”

Here’s the truth: Those numbers won’t grow without a mandate.

We now know that asking people to get vaccinated is not going to get everyone vaccinated. There is too much resistance, too much misinformation, too many people who would rather play politics than protect themselves and the public at large.

The result: The Delta variant is spreading. Positivity rates are on the rise. So are hospitalizations. Personally, I’ve had two relatives test positive for COVID-19 in just the past few days. Neither was an immediate family member, but both were fully vaccinated. One is a college student. The other is a middle-aged high school teacher. Both were around people who were unvaccinated.

Given the Delta threat, Sankey made clear Monday the league would not repeat 2020. Teams must be healthy to compete. Games won’t be postponed.

“You’re expected to play as scheduled,” Sankey said. “Thus to dispose of the game, the forfeit word comes up at this point.”

The commissioner called his remarks, “vaccination motivation.”

Yet, while admirable, motivation is not enough. The SEC needs something stronger, more definitive. It needs a directive. If you’re a football player and you want to play in the SEC in 2021, you have to be vaccinated. Plain and simple. If you’re a fan who wants to attend an SEC football game in 2021, you have to be vaccinated. Plain and simple.

Don’t players have the right to refuse the vaccination? Yes, they do. They just can’t play football in the SEC this season. Same for fans who choose not to be vaccinated. They can stay home and watch games on television.

Mandates aren’t something new. The rock band the Foo Fighters re-opened Madison Square Garden last month. It was the venue’s first concert since the pandemic began. All attendees had to show proof of vaccination. Bruce Springsteen has reprised his show on Broadway. All in attendance must show proof of vaccination.

The Cincinnati Bengals are holding their annual preseason luncheon next Monday, marking the opening of training camp. To cover the event, all media is required to show proof of vaccination.

All this is especially important considering the SEC footprint is in the geographic heart of vaccine resistance. Of the 50 states, four of the five with the lowest vaccination rate are in SEC country. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, Louisiana is 46th, Arkansas 48th, Mississippi 49th and Alabama 50th. (According to the same numbers, Kentucky is 29th.)

Would a vaccine requirement hurt SEC attendance?

Might a vaccine requirement hurt attendance? Possibly. But a lack of a mandate might hurt attendance, as well. Come September, do you really want to be packed inside a grandstand of people who may or may not have been vaccinated, who may or may not be carrying COVID-19?

And we’re talking about some of the biggest stadiums in all of college football. Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium seats 102,455. LSU’s Tiger Stadium seats 102,321. Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium seats 100,077. Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium seats 90,916. Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium seats 87,451. The list goes on.

“We know nothing is perfect,” said Sankey, “but the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine is an important and incredible product of science.”

Yet, as columnist Max Boot wrote in the Washington Post on Monday, “The ‘pretty please’ approach isn’t working.”

It won’t work in the SEC. Requirements might. Maybe the thought of not getting to see their favorite team or play their favorite sport this fall will be just what hesitant SEC football fans and players need to do the right thing.

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