Southeastern Conference announces it will allow voluntary workouts
On Friday afternoon, the Southeastern Conference announced that starting on June 8, schools will be allowed to hold voluntary workouts and activities for their student-athletes in select programs. Each school will be allowed to make decisions at its own discretion and must follow strict safety guidelines to continue to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
"The safe and healthy return of our student-athletes, coaches, administrators and our greater university communities have been and will continue to serve as our guiding principle as we navigate this complex and constantly-evolving situation," said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.
Through the month of June, the SEC will allow workouts for football players as well as both men’s and women’s basketball players to be supervised by strength & conditioning coaches only. Those three sports received waivers from the NCAA to begin on-campus workouts in June, however the NCAA still prohibits full-team practices and other required physical activities.
The SEC formed a Task Force in April comprised of health officials, infectious disease experts and sports medicine professionals to help the conference make informed and safe decisions regarding the highly-infectious coronavirus. This Task Force is currently helping all 14 member institutions prepare for return to play.
“Thanks to the blueprint established by our Task Force and the dedicated efforts of our universities and their athletics programs, we will be able to provide our student-athletes with far better health and wellness education, medical and psychological care and supervision than they would otherwise receive on their own while off campus or training at public facilities as states continue to reopen," said Sankey.
This decision is supposed to serve as a transition period for the schools to begin a gradual return to play.
While Texas A&M has not announced an official plan for how these activities and workouts will look, athletic director Ross Bjork did release a statement implying that A&M will be taking advantage of this opportunity provided by the SEC:
The SEC halted its men’s basketball tournament on Wednesday, March 11, following the news that Rudy Gobert of the NBA’s Utah Jazz had tested positive for COVID-19. Two days later, the conference halted all athletic activities up until April 15. That stoppage was later extended until May 31.
This news comes 105 days before the Aggies are set to kick off the 2020 season against Abilene Christian at Kyle Field. Should the nation continue to trend in a positive direction during this pandemic, more announcements from the Southeastern Conference, Texas A&M and others specifically regarding college football can be expected in the coming days, weeks and months.
The release from the Southeastern Conference can be found HERE in its entirety.