Revising its previous ban on competition through March 30, the SEC announced on Friday that “all organized team activities” would be suspended through April 15.
The ban now includes team and individual practices, meetings and other organized gatherings, in addition to games, the conference announced via Twitter.
The SEC announced on Thursday that it would ban all spring sporting events through March 30, with the NCAA following with an announcement that all remaining winter and spring championships were canceled.
“Right now, the health and well-being and safety of our student-athletes, our staff, our coaches, people in the community, that is what is most important,” Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said in a press conference on Friday.
Bjork said the date was picked due to the increasing spread of coronavirus, which has not yet reached its peak.
“We said March 30 yesterday as a conference based on information we had at that time,” Bjork said. “The NCAA then came out with the recruiting dead period, so we wanted to match that aspect of it as a conference.”
A&M was scheduled to begin spring football practices on March 23, with the game scheduled for April 18.
Bjork said despite the suspension of all athletic activity for the next month, that doesn’t necessarily mean seasons are over.
“I don’t think we can rule out anything, but I don’t think we can rule in anything either,” Bjork said. “As we talked this morning, [football was] going to practice on March 23. Coach Childress talked to his baseball team at noon.
“This thing is evolving. Who knows what will happen. Who knows what will happen with SEC Championships at this point; who knows what will happen with any regular season in the spring sports. All those things still are coming together.”
This story will continue to be updated as more information becomes available.