Things will look a lot different when SEC Media Days roll around for South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp in 2020.
This July in Atlanta, there will be no fan gatherings, no media to ask about the upcoming season, no players travelling to represent their schools, and no coaches fielding questions about the state of their respective programs.
Instead, the SEC has announced that it will hold its first-ever virtual media day event. The event will feature Commissioner Greg Sankey’s “State of the SEC” address, as well as media sessions with all 14 of the conference’s head coaches and select student-athletes. Sankey released the following statement regarding the virtual format.
"“Conducting football media days in a virtual format will provide us the opportunity to manage the event in a healthy manner as we continue to be impacted by COVID-19, and will provide flexibility for our programs to adjust their preparation for the 2020 football season according to the preseason calendar that is expected to be expanded due to the cancellation of the spring football season. We look forward to returning to our traditional media days format in 2021.”"
Though times and dates have not yet been set, the SEC Network is planning to have its usual wall-to-wall coverage of the event. The original date was scheduled to take place on July 13-16 at the Omni Atlanta Hotel and College Football Hall of Fame.
The SEC follows suit of the Big XII and PAC-12, who also announced their decisions to hold a virtual event. The Big 10 has yet to decide on its alternative, though it has decided that their media days will not be held as originally planned. The ACC has not made an announcement regarding their event.
Last season, coach Muschamp brought along seniors Jake Bentley, Bryan Edwards, and TJ Brunson to represent the Gamecocks at Media Days. All three have since moved on from the program, which means there will be some new faces beside their head coach when this year’s event rolls around.