SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey released at statement regarding fan attendance at the 2020 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament.
“In light of recent developments beyond our control related to the spread of the coronavirus, including a recommendation from the NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panel, and after consultation with our member universities, we have made the difficult decision to hold the 2020 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament in Nashville without spectators beginning with games of Thursday, March 12,” Sankey said. “Effective immediately, the policy will also apply to other SEC Championship events and on-campus regular-season games scheduled through at least the end of March.”
The Georgia basketball team played in front of fans in Nashville, Tenn., and came away with an 81-63 win. The Bulldogs will play Florida on Wednesday.
A number of sports such as baseball, softball, men’s and women’s tennis are all visiting SEC foes this weekend, with those games now no longer being played in front of fans. Between now and March 30, Georgia baseball has five home games, Georgia softball has five home games, There will also be no fans at the SEC gymnastics championships held in Duluth, the SEC equestrian championships held in Bishop, Ga.
The NCAA also announced on Wednesday that there would be no fan attendance for all NCAA championship events. This includes March Madness but also the NCAA swimming and diving championships which are scheduled to take place from March 18-21.
The next major home event in Athens is the G-Day game on April 18. Georgia has released nothing official regarding the scrimmage or spring practices. Both Ohio State and Michigan announced that they would be pulling coaches off the road for recruiting and that their spring games would be canceled.
Georgia is set to start spring practice on March 17, this coming Tuesday. The University of Georgia is on spring break this week with classes set to resume on Monday. Nothing has been said yet whether or not Georgia will move to online classes.
On Thursday night, it was reported that Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the Coronavirus. This is the first known North American athlete to test positive for the virus.
More Georgia football stories from around DawgNation
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- Tom Crean receives ‘eye-opening’ coronavirus info, Anthony Edwards halts autographs, SEC closes locker rooms
- Some UGA fans are losing their minds over Mark Richt’s tweets
- Georgia sports roundup: Anthony Edwards wins SEC Freshman of the Year, baseball set to face Georgia Southern, No. 1 Florida
- Why the Georgia-Florida rivalry intensifying might be good for Bulldogs