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The SEC made official today its plans for the upcoming college football season. The conference announced it will play a 10-game conference-only schedule that will start on Sept. 26. There will be one bye week for each team and a bye for every team on Dec. 12, the week before the SEC Championship Game is to be played on Dec. 19. This comes on the heels of the ACC announcing it will move forward with an 11-game season, including Notre Dame. It will be a 10-game conference slate with one game against non-conference foes.
Sports in the Pandemic
After professional and collegiate sports came to a halt in March, there has been speculation as too how to play in the midst of a pandemic. The NBA and NHL are playing in a bubble, while MLB is playing with no fans and in a condensed season. All of these attempts to play will help determine how college football looks in the fall.
ESPN college football reporter Chris Lowe was on the Sportscene with Steve Russell recently to discuss the upcoming season and the decision made by the ACC.
ACC may make changes
The ACC is hoping to have its non-conference game be played against a school that resides in the ACC school’s home state.
The ACC will play an 11-game season that is set to begin the weekend of Sept. 12
More info: https://t.co/A6BOwRjkgm pic.twitter.com/qe9tCiH7KO
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) July 29, 2020
Lowe expects there to be new updates and changes with the situation surrounding the season constantly changing.
Low also highlighted how once games get underway and students are back on campus, the narrative may change. There could be spikes in cases at different schools or decisions made by local governments that affect football in some capacity.
College football in January?
Russell mentioned an instance where the season goes on pause. Is there potential that college football will continue to January? No one has ruled anything out according to Low.
Teams may not want to play in the spring, but if that’s the only way, then they may have to do it. As Low indicated, a school year without college football would be ‘catastrophic.’
The SEC has not officially said what two league games will be added to the schedule but it is expected that the next two schools up in rotation, one in 2021 and the other in 2022, would be added to the schedule this year. So, in Florida’s case, if that scenario holds true, it would host Alabama and travel to play Texas A&M. Under this scenario, the annual Florida-Florida State game would not be played this year.
