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*** Ray Tanner and Bob Caslen participated in a virtual town hall meeting on Wednesday night that shed a bit of light into the status of the college football season.
The two main takeaways from Tanner’s comments were: 1) the SEC is in lockstep regarding the fall schedule and 2) social distancing is likely at Williams-Brice Stadium and other venues during fall sports.
GamecockCentral.com reported 10 days ago that college football power brokers were studying the feasibility of social distancing fans at games, but there are still many questions – as Tanner said – even with him providing an update on where things stand.
Here’s a bit more for our subscribers on what we have picked up…
- Tanner did not explicitly say this, and we can confirm that nothing is done on this front, but everyone is proceeding now as if the 2020 season is going to start on time. If this doesn’t seem newsworthy to you, it should. When COVID-19 initially hit, many coaches and administrators across the sport were legitimately in the dark as to whether or not there would even be a season. As time passed and different possibilities came to light – such as even the chance of pushing the season to next spring – it became apparent that the season would be played at some point. Over the last couple weeks in particular, there’s really been a shift in thinking that it seems more likely things are going to start on time.
- With the reality that social distancing is going to be in place during the season, regardless of when it starts, it begs another question that’s a tough one for administrators to answer: how many folks get to attend the games, and how do you select them?
Tanner mentioned on Wednesday that the school is running different models for attendance, and how to go about selecting fans is part of that, along with a set amount. We can tell you that, in all likelihood, there will need to be some type of national model adopted that programs follow as far as a total percentage of capacity allowed or something of that nature. As it pertains to South Carolina, we have heard potential attendance figures as low as the 15K-25K range per game as possibilities.
That obviously makes it quite tough on the university when determining, under that scenario, which folks could attend games on a weekly basis. You have to balance longtime donors, big money donors, lower level Gamecock Club members who receive tickets and want to attend games, students, etc.
What could end up happening is some type of combination of a lottery with priority points, an allowance for certain premium seating, an allocation for some longtime Gamecock Club members who may not give big money but are not top donors, and some student seating. It’s all a work in progress at this point, but South Carolina’s administration will have to find a way to balance all this based on the final allowed attendance figures. All that’s being discussed and worked up behind the scenes, with obviously no decisions being made at this point.
- The expectation is that coaches, players, and officials are going to be tested for the virus at some point prior to games. Our last Insider Report covering this topic mentioned the issues of liability, and that’s been a talking point across the sport as well. Schools will have to find ways to combat that, too.
- We still have not heard any update on when teams may be able to reopen in-person activities and practices. As we have mentioned, there are models being floated behind the scenes based on a certain number of weeks of preparation – for example, a 6-week model consisting of strength and conditioning, pro-style OTAs, and training camp - prior to the season.
- On the recruiting front, The NCAA has also announced some updated rules and regulations during the recruiting dead period, which will go into effect on Monday:
There are now no restrictions on how many university staffers can participate on recruiting calls with recruits, no limits on how many recruits or family members that can participate on those calls, and current student-athletes can also jump on those calls as well.
Recruits from the 2020 class can participate in virtual team activities after their high school graduation or after completing their transfer requirements.
The current recruiting dead period – which is through May 31 – may be extended through the end of June at the committee’s next meting.
*** Many of our subscribers have asked whether or not South Carolina could get involved with former commitment Issiah Walker, who recently entered the transfer portal after signing with Florida in the 2020 class.
We can report that Walker’s camp has been in the process making interest known to several parties, and South Carolina would fall into that category. Florida State and Miami, two programs heavily involved during the recruiting process, are programs to watch.
Here’s one reason why it seems more likely that Walker will end up at Miami or somewhere else: both the SEC and the NCAA each have one-year residency requirements after transferring, with the SEC's applying to "intraconference" transfers. Some of those SEC rules were relaxed in 2018 to allow graduate transfers and those transferring from a school under NCAA sanctions to be immediately eligible, but those would not apply here. Presumably, Walker would need a waiver to transfer to another program within the conference in order to not sit for a lengthy amount of time and have eligibility affected.
*** Thanks for reading, and we appreciate you being a member of GamecockCentral.com!
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