Greg Sankey says a decision on 2020 football season will be made in late July

The college football season is still scheduled to begin on time with programs making their return to campuses to start voluntary workouts. Although players are returning to campus, it remains to be seen if the 2020 season will happen on time.

All throughout the media, the question is will we see college football this fall? SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has now given fans a date that they can look towards for a decision.

On Monday, Sankey made an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show to talk about the 2020 season and he said he believes they will know by late July if they will be playing college football this year.

“I think that’s probably a late July time period. My thinking has shifted a bit. We started June 8th after a two-week oversight, diagnostic medical exam period for these voluntary activities.

“We’ll have three or four weeks — on the 13th of July is when a little bit more practice can begin. I think we deserve the chance to see how that progresses. I would say before we get into full-blown practice, you’re going to be in that decision-making process as it relates to what happens on Labor Day weekend, which is the scheduled start of the season.”

Although this is likely good news for the SEC teams and fans, it could create problems down the road if the other conferences don’t follow in the SEC’s footsteps.

Alabama is set to face USC from the Pac-12 in a massive matchup in Arlington, Texas. Ole Miss is scheduled to face Baylor from the Big 12 in Houston to start the season.

Those are just two examples where interconference scheduling could create problems if those other conferences don’t follow the SEC’s footsteps should they decide to play the 2020 season.

“That’s one of the complexities that’s in front of college football,” Sankey said. “It’s different than the professional conversation. The best example I can give is to go back to March. We all made independent decisions to stop our basketball tournament but came to the same conclusions.

“The result of what’s happened is among the autonomy conferences, those of us in the five — ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and myself — we talk every day. We have medical committees. They talk every week. That will be a big part of guiding us forward.”

Hopefully, the coronavirus will have begun to slow down by the time fall rolls around and it won’t be a difficult decision for these conferences to make because everyone wants to see college football this season.