SEC pivots to conference-only football schedule
As the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC announced their scheduling plans for the 2020 season, the college football world waited for a decision from the Southeastern Conference. Thursday, the league decided it would go it alone.
The SEC announced it would hold a 10-game, conference-only schedule as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. John Talty of Al.com first reported the news. Games will kick off Sept. 26 and the SEC championship game, originally scheduled for Dec. 5, will be played Dec. 19. The specific matchups for each team have not yet been announced, but this assures that Missouri's scheduled matchups against Central Arkansas, Eastern Michigan, Louisiana and BYU will not be played this season.
The SEC becomes the third of the Power Five conferences to eliminate non-conference competitions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The Big Ten and Pac-12 made the move to do so on July 9. Wednesday, the ACC announced that its members would play 10 league games as well as one non-conference contest. The ACC's hope, clearly, was to preserve intra-state rivalry games such as Clemson-South Carolina, Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech and Kentucky-Louisville, but the SEC's announcement Thursday means those games will not be played.
In a release, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said the decision to eliminate non-conference games came down to uniformity and flexibility. It will allow the league to monitor health trend in only the 11 states in the SEC footprint rather than the entire country, and it will make it easier to reschedule games that might be impacted by an outbreak. The new schedule provides one mid-season open date for each school as well as a league-wide open date on Dec. 12.
"We believe these schedule adjustments offer the best opportunity to complete a full season by giving us the ability to adapt to the fluid nature of the virus and the flexibility to adjust schedules as necessary if disruptions occur," Sankey said. "It is regrettable that some of our traditional non-conference rivalries cannot take place in 2020 under this plan, but these are unique, and hopefully temporary, circumstances that call for unconventional measures."
There are still some details yet to be released about the new schedule, including which 10 SEC teams Missouri will play. There has been some speculation that each team would play the eight conference games already scheduled for 2020 in addition to the cross-division opponents slated for the next two years. In that case, Missouri would host Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Georgia and Arkansas (which is scheduled to be played at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium) and would travel to South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida and Mississippi State. The Tigers would also face Texas A&M and Auburn, with one of those games at home and one on the road.
Another remaining question will be whether Missouri has to pay the previously agreed-upon guarantee money to Central Arkansas, Eastern Michigan and Louisiana for their trips to Columbia. As of his press conference three weeks ago, athletics director Jim Sterk and deputy AD Nick Joos didn't know the answer to that.
The SEC's decision provides some long-awaited clarity as to what Missouri's upcoming season will look like. The Tigers are scheduled to begin fall camp practices to prepare for that season Aug. 7. However, as cases continue to spike across the country, it's still not a guarantee that games will be played.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for further coverage.