SEC football expected to move to a 10-game, conference-only schedule

The SEC is expected to play a 10-game, conference-only schedule in football.

According to Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated, the SEC is expected to announce the top league in college football will move to a 10-game, conference-only schedule. According to the report, the schedule adjustment was agreed to on Wednesday but needs to be ratified by university presidents who will meet virtually on Thursday but a formal announcement may not happen until next week. In other words, this is a fluid situation.

If the SEC does indeed move forward with the 10-game, conference-only schedule, it’ll follow decisions by the Big Ten and Pac-12 who announced their plans for conference-only schedules earlier in the month.

The ACC announced a 10-game-plus-one model on Monday, but there are stipulations that will allow in-state games outside of the conference, such as Clemson vs. South Carolina, Florida vs. Florida State and Kentucky vs. Louisville, among others. However, if the SEC decides to go with a conference-only model, it remains to be seen what happens with those longstanding rivalry games.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said, “It is not appropriate to respond to anonymous sources and speculation. We continue our discussions focused on the return of fall sports, including football. We will announce any decisions at the appropriate time.”

The SEC moving to conference-only will drastically alter the schedules.

Provided the SEC moves to a conference-only schedule, it would mean highly-anticipated games such as the rematch between LSU and Texas would be canceled and the game between Oklahoma and Tennessee would also be removed from the schedule. Those were two of the more intriguing non-conference matchups. Furthermore, the Alabama-USC game was already canceled, but that’s another game that fans will miss out on in what will be a memorable 2020 season.

There will be many ripples and long-lasting effects from the cancellations of these games. The money will be the biggest loss for university presidents but the football impact will be felt when it comes to determining who has the best resume for making the College Football Playoff.

With several teams losing marquee opponents that boosted their strength of schedule, now those teams will be without an opportunity to make a strong impression early in the season and have momentum before entering the grueling SEC portion of their schedule.

And back to the money, the lower-level opponents the SEC teams play, who are often referred to as “cupcakes” will not get the seven-figure payout for playing at Alabama, LSU or Georgia which can fund the entire university athletic department for a significant amount of time.

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