Mississippi JUCOs will play this fall, SEC meets next week

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                             East Mississippi Community College (Photo: EMCC)

In a positive development amid all the concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 virus, there was good news emerging Friday for football fans in the state of Mississippi. The Mississippi Association of Community Colleges announced there would be a junior college football season in the Magnolia State.

The season will consist of a six-game division-only, regular-season schedule for teams with playoffs to follow.

A statement from the association said: "The president of the Mississippi Association of Community College (MACC) met today, July 24, 2020, and voted to delay the start of the 2020 fall football season to October 1. The 2020 football season will consist of a six-game regular season with divisional play only and will conclude with a playoff. The MACC will continue to evaluate COVID-19 and its impact on our student-athletes."

The Mississippi Association of Community College is comprised of 13 football-playing schools divided into two divisions. The Northern Division features Coahoma, East Mississippi, Holmes, Itawamba, Mississippi Delta, Northeast Mississippi and Northwest Mississippi. The Southern Division includes Copiah-Lincoln, East Central, Hinds, Jones County, Mississippi Gulf Coast, Pearl River and Southwest Mississippi.

The decision by the Mississippi association was made after consultation with the National Junior College Athletic Association.

The new proposal eliminates just three games from the junior college schedule in Mississippi, which is traditionally a nine-game slate. Practices could begin as early as the middle of August.

The association will continue to monitor COVID-19 developments and is prepared to make adjustments.

As for the Southeastern Conference, the league's presidents are scheduled to meet next week (July 30) in Birmingham, Ala. Major decisions on the SEC's fall schedule are expected to be made. The meeting will be the first attended by representatives from all 14 member institutions since the conference's athletic directors met on July 12.

"We’ve gone in the wrong direction and that’s problematic," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said July 12 on The Paul Finebaum Show. "That doesn’t mean that’s the finish line and things will never change. We’ve seen the news around COVID-19 alter itself in different ways over a number of weeks. And so what we’ve identified is an opportunity in late July for an important check in to see our public health reality. We were told from the beginning to take as much time as possible to make a better decision.”


SOURCE: Johnson, David. "Mississippi JUCOs will play this fall, SEC meets next week." OMSpirit - 247Sports.com, https://247sports.com/college/ole-miss/Article/Mississippi-JUCOs-will-play-this-fall-SEC-meets-next-week-149503725/