Carter Hopes Student-Athletes Return to Ole Miss July 1

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

Ole Miss Athletics Director Keith Carter hopes to be able to have student-athletes back on campus by July 1, he said recently.

Keith Carter, Ole Miss’ athletic director. Photo by Josh McCoy.

“We’re talking on our campus about a way to get our student-athletes back on campus for the summer. That’s important for us because we want to get the fall started on time and that’s our goal,” Carter said. “We have got to get our students back and get them back in shape. If we get too far past (July 1), it’s going to be hard maybe to start on time.”

Since the end of spring break, COVID-19 has caused everything to shut down and everything in the sports world has been put on hold. Ole Miss student-athletes have been away from the facilities without time to train and prepare for their respective sports.

In the Southeastern Conference, the 14 member institutions span 11 states and they are all working together to have sports this upcoming fall as health experts learn more about the virus.

“We spent a lot of time in the last couple of weeks talking about just that. We have 11 states in the footprint of the SEC. What we would love to do, and really what we’ve done since about March 13 when all this started is we’ve made a lot of decisions at the conference level that has affected all institutions and all athletic departments,” Carter said.

Through the first seven weeks of the stay-at-home order, states are starting to open up and giving hope to schools being back this fall.

“Based on the cases and where the states are with COVID-19 and those types of things, some are going to open up sooner than others. We’re seeing Tennessee opening up restaurants and Georgia is also opening up,” he said.

While still hoping that sports can start on time this fall, administrators still say the specifics are up in the air. 

“We’re just trying to think about all scenarios and trying to get students back. We’re going to get them back eventually,” Carter said. “We just have to make sure we’re doing it the right way. I know our students are ready to get back and our coaches are ready.”

Carter said as of right now there has been no change to the Rebels’ season opener against Baylor on Sept. 5 in Houston, Texas.