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Unlike a year ago, Greg Sankey is confident that the upcoming football season will start on time this Labor Day weekend.

However, during his “state of the union” to kick off 2021 SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., the SEC commissioner cautioned that they aren’t entirely in the clear when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only six of the 14 teams in the conference have hit the 80 percent threshold in roster vaccination and Sankey said that number needs to “grow and grow rapidly.” A source confirmed to HawgBeat that Arkansas is one of those six teams.

He pointed to things like Olympians being unable to compete, the Yankees-Red Sox game that was recently postponed and the North Carolina State incident at the College World Series as possible consequences.

“With six weeks to go before kickoff, now is the time to seek that full vaccination,” Sankey said. “And we know nothing is perfect, but the availability and the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines are an important and incredible product of science.

“It's not a political football, and we need to do our part to support a healthy society because, as we look back, the potential absence of college sports last year caused us to think about not losing sight of the lifelong experiences, the laboratory of learning that takes place, and the educational benefits that accrue to the people who participate on our teams.”

The magic number in the SEC is 85 percent vaccination. At that point, COVID-19 protocols are relaxed, with the SEC no longer requiring regular testing or wearing masks inside facilities.

Reaching that percentage could be vital in playing an entire 12-game slate, as the conference doesn’t have the flexibility of an open week it had last year that allowed for games to be moved around. That means forfeits could happen in 2021.

“That means your team needs to be healthy to compete, and if not, that game won't be rescheduled,” Sankey said. “And thus, to dispose of the game, the ‘forfeit’ word comes up at this point.”

Sankey also mentioned that the SEC still has a 53-man minimum for playing games, but he has proposed eliminating that so games can still be played with fewer than 53 available players.

Other Tidbits

~Last week, NCAA President Mark Emmert announced it was time to consider decentralizing and deregulating college sports. That pleased Sankey, he said Monday, as the SEC would like more autonomy. “We often move forward producing legally defensible, relevant results and regulations,” Sankey said. “The most recognized, the expectations, demands, and pressures that are present on the campuses of this conference are not uniform across all of Division I, and expecting every conference to come together to debate, discuss, and produce effective decisions for everyone is not our modern reality. We must begin to adapt.”

~Sankey also announced the SEC’s version of the NFL’s “Rooney Rule” to enhance the league’s efforts to hire “historically underrepresented groups” for positions like athletics directors, senior administrators and head coaches. Schools will be required to submit documentation to the conference office each year to prove they are “fulfilling their expectations under this new policy,” Sankey said.

~As college athletics enters the age of name, image and likeness (NIL), Sankey said he is still pushing for a federal law regarding NIL because the way it’s structured right now, the rules vary across the country because of the different state laws. “We understand it's difficult to gather the support for such federal legislation,” Sankey said. “However, congressional action is necessary if we're going to provide every student a clear, consistent, and fair opportunity to benefit from their name, image, and likeness.”

~Sankey noted that of the 613 U.S. Olympians, 463 of them - or 75.5 percent - played college sports. That number includes 80 current or former SEC athletes. All 14 SEC programs have at least one Olympian, something only two other conferences can claim, and - as Sankey pointed out - “there’s not a football player among that group.”

~There were 185 student-athletes, across all sports, who decided to opt out of last season because of the pandemic, according to Sankey.

~Some stats of excellence: Eight different SEC schools won a total of nine national championships and the SEC produced 12 Players of the Year in its 21 sports.

~The transfer portal has seen 1,600 FBS scholarship football players enter this year and 1,100 are still active in the portal. Across all Division I sports, more than 13,000 athletes have entered the portal and more than 11,000 still remain.