How soon could college student-athletes be back on campus and working out to get ready for their next season? How about as early as next month?
According to LSU Executive Deputy Director of Athletics, Verge Ausberry, the league Presidents will vote on May 22 whether to bring players back to campus on June 1 or June 15.
The league has previously enacted measures to mitigate the impact and spread of COVID-19. Those measures included the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament and all spring sports, as well as SEC Championship events, in-person activity (voluntary or required), including practices, individual or team workouts through at least May 31.
As the effort to flatten the curve appears to be working around the country, states are beginning to open. Most notable in the SEC are Georgia and Florida. Both states have already begun the process of reopening businesses that have been closed during quarantine. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the state of Florida would be open to hosting professional sporting events and even said Ben Hill Griffin Stadium could be a site to host professional sports while speaking on a cable news network.
Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin released this statement regarding that possibiity.
“Our priotity is the well-being of Gator students-sthletes, staff , and fans, and we are working toward the day when we can once again engage with those groups safely on campus. following Governor DeSantis’ comments yesterday inviting pro teams to participate in our state, I reached out to remind him that UF and Gainesville have world class health care facilities, an iconic football stadium, a state of the art basketball arena and a brand new baseball ballpark within two hours of cities with professional franchises. We’ve been receiveing excellent guidence from our state and health care officials, and when those groups believe it is safe to host college and pro sporting events in Florida, we will be prepared to do so.”
Thursday the league also announced a task force consisting of 14 medical professionals from each of its member institutions, which will guide the league and schools in their efforts to safely bring students and sports back to campus.
With these few announcements, it would appear that normalcy is close to returning to college campuses and that means sports in the near future.