Fans will "not be permitted to attend Vanderbilt football home games through at least October," making Vanderbilt the "only SEC school that will not allow fans over COVID-19 concerns," according to Adam Sparks of the Nashville TENNESSEAN. Games against LSU (Oct. 3), South Carolina (Oct. 10) and Ole Miss (Oct. 31) will be in a "mostly empty Vanderbilt Stadium." No decision "has been made on possible attendance for Vanderbilt home games" against Florida (Nov. 21) and Tennessee (Nov. 28). The other 13 SEC schools will "allow between 20% and 25% capacity for their home games." The SEC begins play on Sept. 26 (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 9/12).
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? SI.com's Ross Dellenger noted college football stadium capacity "doesn’t appear to be determined by local community virus rates," as 43 of the 68 FBS programs that have announced capacity plans "will have at least 20% capacity." Data from the CDC shows seven of the eight states highest in infection rates are "home to at least one SEC team," and nine of the league’s 14 college towns are "producing enough cases daily to be deemed sites with 'uncontrollable spread.'" However, SEC stadiums "will have an average capacity of 22.8% this fall, or about 19,400 per home game." Dellenger: "If the SEC is bad, the Big 12 is worse." Four of the 10 Big 12 college towns are "generating a daily infection rate of at least 50 cases." In data collected from Sept. 1-8, Big 12 college towns have a "combined average of 35.8 new cases a day to the SEC’s 35.6, dwarfing all other leagues." But the Big 12's average capacity is at "21.6%, or roughly 13,400." College programs have "invested thousands of dollars in virus-proofing their stadiums, equipping the venues with hand sanitizing stations, prepackaged concession food and extra staffing to police protocols." Some even "used drones to blanket seating surfaces in disinfecting chemicals" (SI.com, 9/11).
