SEC athletic directors are not in agreement on a date to resume football team activities.
Six weeks ago, the SEC announced an extension of their ban on team activities through May 31 (from the previously announced April 15). That ban is long enough, said 13 of the conference's 14 athletics directors on a virtual call this week. Phillip Fullmer was the lone AD to oppose a June 1 start date for resuming team activities, according to Kentucky Sports Radio:
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The vast majority of the athletic directors supported allowing players to return to campuses on June 1; however, one athletic director spoke out against it, arguing that the ban should be in place indefinitely: Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer. After discussing it with the group, Fulmer proposed the date of June 15, but many believed that was too late for players to be ready to start the season on schedule. From there, the discussion was tabled for next week.
The June 1 date has been floated by dozens of college football stakeholders, including Iowa president Bruce Harreld, who said two weeks ago, "June 1 is the date we're going to get back to practice." However, there hasn't been an official announcement by any FBS program for a team activities schedule.
“I do believe that if we do it right, if we’re patient enough on some key areas like when we bring our players back on campus," Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley said on Thursday. "All this talk of schools wanting to bring players back on June 1st is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.”
June 1 is almost 14 weeks before the start of the season for most programs, including Oklahoma, who's scheduled to host Missouri State on Sept. 5. Fourteen weeks is far greater than the widely discussed period of eight weeks to prepare players for the season.
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