Keith Carter: Ole Miss eyeing July 1 return for student-athletes



Various reports have surfaced over the last few days indicating a number of schools are preparing as if they’ll open for in-person, on-campus instruction in the fall.

All activities on college campuses, including athletics, were suspended in March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the schools pushing ahead with the fall return date in mind include Oregon, NC State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Purdue.

Officials of the 14 universities in the SEC have been quick to note, however, the league operates under its own terms. For example, the SEC was one of the last conferences to suspend its conference tournament and spring sports, meaning it’s charting its own course forward as all in involved deal with the unprecedented challenges of coronavirus.

In the end, the primary concern for all parties — despite the obvious concern for the general health of each and every student — is whether the 2020-21 football season will start on time or even be played at all. Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter said Tuesday Ole Miss is aiming for a July 1 return to campus for student-athletes. Any delay after that, he said, would put the season’s start time in jeopardy.

“We’ve spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks talking about (re-opening),” Carter said, in a Zoom call with local media Tuesday afternoon. “We have 11 states in the footprint of the SEC. What we’d love to do, and really what we’ve done since about March 13th when all this started, is we’ve made a lot of decisions at the conference level that has affected all institutions and all athletics departments. We would love to continue to do that.

“But we also know just based on the cases and where states are with COVID and those type of things some are going to open sooner than others. We’re seeing Tennessee opening restaurants. Georgia’s opening up. They’re going to open up sooner, so we’ve got to talk about that. We want to be equitable, but we’re talking on our campus about a way to bring our students-athletes back in the summer. That’s important for us. If we want to get the fall started on time, and that’s our goal, we’ve got to get these students back, get them back in shape. That July 1st date is the one that’s kind of standing out. If we get too far past that, it’s going to be hard maybe to start on time. We’re looking at some things there.

“But this thing is so ever-changing and evolving. It changes every single day. We’re thinking about all scenarios in trying to get them back. We’re going to get them back eventually, we’ve just got to make sure we’re doing it the right way. I know our students are ready to get back, and our coaches are ready to get their hands on them, for sure.”

Ole Miss football is entering its first season under Lane Kiffin, the former FAU head coach who was hired to replace Matt Luke in December. Kiffin’s other head coaching stops include Tennessee, USC and the NFL’s then-Oakland Raiders. He was the offensive coordinator at Alabama before jumping to FAU.

Ole Miss is set to open its season with a neutral-site game Sept. 5 in Houston against Baylor. Carter said there have been no discussions about moving or cancelling the game.

“As of right now, there are no talks to move the game to another city,” he said. Carter has served as Ole Miss’ full-time athletics director since November. The Rebels’ home opener is set for Sept. 12 against Southeast Missouri.

SOURCE: Garrett, Ben. "Keith Carter: Ole Miss eyeing July 1 return for student-athletes." OMSpirit - 247Sports.com, 28 April 2020, https://247sports.com/college/ole-miss/Article/Keith-Carter-Ole-Miss-eyeing-July-1-return-for-student-athletes-146594084/