FAYETTEVILLE — First-year Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman said Friday he thinks the Razorbacks will play this season.
Pittman indicated he was unsure of whether the season would be played “five days ago,” referencing reports at the time that indicated major conferences would cancel or postpone their seasons. The Big Ten and Pac-12 conference canceled their fall seasons Tuesday, but the SEC, ACC and Big 12 are moving forward with plans to play football in September.
“It’s still real fluid, but as of right now we all believe we’re going to play and we’re extremely happy about it, and extremely happy with our commissioner, Mr. (Greg) Sankey,” Pittman said.
Following the Big Ten's and Pac-12's cancellation, Sankey said he felt comfortable with the SEC's plan to begin practice Monday and games Sept. 26.
"I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 members are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes," Sankey said.
Arkansas was scheduled to play Texas A&M on Sept. 26 before the SEC announced it would delay the start of the season by three weeks and disallow teams from playing nonconference games. The league last Friday announced each team’s 10 opponents, but has yet to finalize a schedule.
The SEC previously said teams would play their 10 games over an 11-week span ending Dec. 5, and a championship game will be scheduled for Dec. 19.
Arkansas is scheduled to play Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Missouri from the SEC East, and every other team from the SEC West. The Razorbacks are scheduled to play five games at home and five games on the road. No determination has been made on if or how many fans will be able to attend games.
Pittman said he thinks the SEC has “a wonderful plan” to minimize the impact of covid-19 on teams.
“I think more importantly, our kids believe that,” Pittman said.
The league announced detailed protocol for the season last week that included required face coverings for coaches and twice-weekly testing for all team personnel.
“We were made well aware a long time ago…we felt like we were as ahead or equal with anybody in knowledge of covid and testing plans," Pittman said. "I always felt like there was going to be an opportunity to play and I felt like we would hang on as long as any conference, and to this point that’s what we’ve done.”