UK fall sports to proceed amid pandemic. Here’s how SEC’s plan will work.
Some University of Kentucky athletics programs will play in the fall and spring this school year, it turns out.
The Southeastern Conference shared new start dates and formats for non-football sports on Thursday, as well as details about intraconference postseason competitions. Those plans call for women’s soccer and volleyball to each play a truncated regular-season schedule in the fall followed by a spring competition schedule.
Women’s soccer teams will play eight games — six against divisional opponents and two cross-division opponents — over the course of eight weeks, beginning Sept. 18 and lasting through Nov. 8. All 14 teams will participate in the SEC Tournament beginning Nov. 13 with each team guaranteed at least two games. The conference tournament will be played in Orange Beach, Ala.
The SEC does not sponsor men’s soccer. UK’s men’s soccer team is a member of Conference USA, which announced recently that its non-football fall sports would move their entire seasons to the spring.
SEC volleyball teams will each play eight total matches against four unique opponents from within the conference. Each team will play an opponent twice in a weekend over the course of six weeks, beginning Oct. 16 and lasting through Nov. 27. That sport does not typically have a postseason conference tournament, and will not this year, either.
Both sports will also play in the spring; details of those scheduling formats are contingent on pending NCAA decisions related to how championships in those sports will be conducted in the 2020-21 school year. The NCAA has said it will hold national postseason events in those sports during the spring but has not detailed plans.
The revised schedules resulting from the coronavirus pandemic are a drastic reduction compared to the slates each team played last season. UK’s volleyball team played 29 regular-season matches in 2019 while the women’s soccer team played 19 games.
Men’s and women’s cross country programs must participate in a minimum of two, but a maximum of three, competitions to qualify for the SEC Championships in Baton Rouge, La., on Oct. 30. Competitions can begin Sept. 11 and last through Oct. 23, and may include non-conference opponents as long as those schools adhere to COVID-19 protocols put into effect by the SEC.
Men’s and women’s golf and tennis teams may compete in up to three team events beginning Oct. 1. Those events may only include other SEC teams or teams “from the geographic region” of its school.
Baseball and softball teams may conduct practices and intrasquad scrimmages during the fall semester but cannot hold exhibitions against other teams.
The NCAA last week voted to give all athletes in fall sports an additional year of eligibility regardless of how many or how few games they play during the 2020-21 school year because of the pandemic. Athletes who decide to sit out in the 2020-21 school year also will continue to have their scholarships honored.
