SEC suspends on and off-campus recruiting through March 30

In light of the coronavirus outbreak, Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey just announced the league has suspended on- and off-campus recruiting through the end of March, at least.

“We did have conversations about recruiting I referenced and have stopped off campus and on campus recruiting for a period of time. That could be extended. I’ve identified the NCAA needs to fully engage on this issue as well. The practice issue may be for them nationally. I think we had some conversations. I don’t know that we came to a destination, so that means it’s still on that list that we’re creating.”

As of now, that period runs through March 30, but could be extended if needed.

“We’ve created an interim period where we will work with our campuses to determine how we return to our normal operation. It may not be March 30. It may be beyond. But that remains to be seen, but we’ve identified a time frame where we can engage in conversation and decision making pretty quickly.”

Recruiting’s a pretty big deal, so Sankey reached out to Mark Emmert to suggest an NCAA-wide suspension of recruiting activities.

“I’ve sent a text to Mark Emmert saying the NCAA should engage in on and off campus recruiting policies and changes and, candidly, restrictions for a period of time while we’re all dealing with this. That would set everyone on an even plane rather quickly.”

For now, each SEC school can decide whether or not to hold football spring practice.

“I was on a conference call with one of our athletic departments where that was asked. Our athletic director talked about that afterwards. We’ve limited the size clearly of on campus events, and campuses are doing that individually, but I don’t have a prescriptive list right now around what’s going to happen with spring practice, spring football.”

UK is currently on spring break, so a decision about spring practice has yet to be made.