The SEC needs to give everyone closure

Look, I get it.

Everybody wants — needs — sports to come back. We would all like it. But, the Southeastern Conference needs to grapple with reality.

The latest statement from the conference — released two days ago — only mentions that all competition is suspended through April 15. Meanwhile, the NCAA has already cancelled all winter and spring sports championships, all the way out to the College World Series in June.

There is no particular point in keeping up the charade that competition might resume at some point. When the NCAA says there won’t even be a College World Series, what, exactly, is the purpose of saying that competition is suspended only through April 15?

The CDC has recommended against gatherings of 50 or more people for the next eight weeks. That would go all the way through the middle of May, and never mind disallowing spectators: for college baseball, simply having all the players and coaches for both teams, as well as umpires and other essential personnel (scorekeepers, media televising the game) on hand would get the contest to over 50 people.

What’s more, basically every school has sent students home, and that includes the athletes. Vanderbilt ordered all students off campus by yesterday and is now conducting classes online for the remainder of the semester. Even were it possible to resume competition at any point, getting everybody back on campus (and into game shape) is going to be a difficult task.

Which leads one to wonder why, exactly, the SEC insists on holding the door open to the possibility that the season will resume at some point. It won’t, and the sooner everybody accepts that, the sooner we can have closure on this.