BATON ROUGE - The SEC's annual gathering of its football coaches, athletes and media members will take place virtually for the first time ever.

Originally set to take place July 13-16 in Atlanta, the SEC says its football media days will now entail connecting members of teams and the media digitally. The  event will include SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey's annual State of the SEC address, as well as media sessions with the conference's 14 head coaches and select student-athletes. 

"Conducting football media days in a virtual format will provide us the opportunity to manage the event in a healthy manner as we continue to be impacted by COVID-19, and will provide flexibility for our programs to adjust their preparation for the 2020 football season according to the preseason calendar that is expected to be expanded due to the cancellation of the spring football season," Sankey said.  

Sankey said he expects the event to move back to its usual format in 2021.