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Florida fall practice to open August 6, Jim McElwain says at SEC Media Days

Florida will get things going in the first week of August.

By Andy Hutchins
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Florida's first run of fall practices under Jim McElwain will begin on August 6, the Gators' head coach announced at SEC Media Days on Monday.

It's likely that August 5 (a Wednesday) will be a day of meetings and introductions, but it's interesting that Florida's opening its fall camp before its Summer B term ends — classes end for that term on August 7, a Friday, though final exams for those classes are administered in-class.

But, hey, "student-athlete" — and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey's newly stated goal of being "scholars" first — only means so much, right? Balancing finals with the first day of fall practice is part of the challenge of being a top-flight athlete at plenty of institutions, not just Florida, so don't think this is me taking umbrage with the Gators alone: This is an institutional problem created by conflicting priorities.