Greg Sankey: Football season has been tough, but finish line is near
Why play college football in 2020?
That was the question Greg Sankey kept turning over and over in his head on July 18. It was a sleepless night for Sankey, who as commissioner of the SEC, had been wrestling with challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic for several months.
As the number of COVID-19 cases exploded throughout the country, Sankey and the rest of the college commissioners were working on a decision whether to play football in the fall or delay games until the spring.
The question, asked on the Paul Finebaum Show a day earlier, bothered him. So he picked up his phone and began texting, reaching out to a network of former coaches, commissioners and administrators, media members, former players and current athletes.
The question was simple: as you went back to the 2019 season, why were we playing college football? All Sankey wanted in return was five reasons.
“Some of the input there was the connection was really important,” Sankey said. “You think of the upheaval and uncertainty, the connection to something. ... So that connection came up over and over and over again. There were dozens and dozens of responses.”
Sankey said the messages reminded him college football celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019. The sport itself had survived through World War I and II, the Great Depression, several pandemics, including the Spanish Flu, the Vietnam War and Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“Through all of that … we were able to play college football and it was actually a point of encouragement for me to rethink that we’ve gone through a lot in this nation,” Sankey said.
Another piece of advice that helped Sankey came from Dr. Stella Self, a biostatistician from the University of South Carolina, who warned against making any rash decisions during the pandemic.
“‘Take as long as you can to make major decisions because you’ll have better information available to make those decisions,’” Sankey recalled being told. Those words inspired the effort to settle on the SEC’s start date of Sept. 26.
Sankey spoke with the Orlando Sentinel about a variety of topics, including the upcoming College Football Playoff semifinals, the bowl schedule and the economic impact of the pandemic on the conference. The conversation has been edited and condensed:
On moving back the SEC Championship Game and College Football Playoff semifinals
From the very start, Sankey believed it was important for the SEC to provide a definitive schedule.
“I thought for the start line, we really clear that when we adjusted our start date, we weren’t postponing, we weren’t delaying, we set a new start date,” Sankey said. “We felt that was an important message for the young people participating, our coaches and our fans to hear. Here is a new start date and here is how the season will play out and here is the finish on Dec. 19.
“With all this time of stress and tension and uncertainty, providing that level of clarity I thought was important.”
It’s also the reason he’s been pushing to wrap up the season on Dec. 19.
“I think we need a finish line because simply moving the finish line doesn’t guarantee a finish,” he added. “At some point, we have to say we want to finish and name a champion.”
It’s also why the College Football Playoff management group, which is comprised of Sankey and the other nine conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick, announced Wednesday the semifinals would remain on track for Jan. 1.
“There are probably 1,000 hypotheticals that flow off of that, but it provides clarity amid the uncertainty and I think that’s been important for my perspective all the way through this experience,” said Sankey, who deferred when asked about the possibility of moving both the semifinals and national championship game if COVID-19 impacts one or more teams.
“Across the board in college football, we’ve been highly, highly, highly successful at actually playing games. … We have dates, whether an adjustment is needed or not I’m not able to predict.”
Bowl season presents a unique opportunity
While much of the focus this postseason has been on the College Football Playoff, Sankey said the bowl schedule is still an important piece of this season.
“Our student-athletes asked me back in July if there would be bowl games,” Sankey said. “That would be the one opportunity for nonconference games to take place in the football season. Maybe in some way, more special given with what we’ve dealt with.”
Sankey said the communication with the bowl partners has been encouraging.
“It will be different, but this is the first time the public will get to see an SEC team line up against a nonconference opponent,” he said. “I think that’s a remarkable opportunity still.”
Economic impact of COVID-19
The overall economic impact on the conference due to the pandemic is going to be substantial, according to Sankey.
“We reduced our regular season football schedule by 20% … but those are typically home games,” Sankey explained. “Some of our teams may have had four nonconference games at home, some may have had a neutral-site game, so there’s an impact on those programs, but we went into it with our eyes open.
“Then we’ve had between no crowds in some circumstances to 25% of a full stadium. That’s a substantial impact.”
Sankey said the conference was committed to playing football in order to help provide the athletes with not only a connection for their educational pursuits, but also maintaining a healthy environment for them, which also comes at a cost.
“That’s before we get into additional costs of COVID testing, which is substantial in itself in terms of expense for all of us,” added Sankey. “You’ve seen some hard decisions made in athletic departments in terms of budget reduction and pay reductions and furloughing and layoffs. All of those are real for us.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com.
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