SEC football schedule 2020: Week 1 slate features marquee matchups

Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide reacts after defeating the Georgia Bulldogs 35-28 in the 2018 SEC Championship Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 1, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide reacts after defeating the Georgia Bulldogs 35-28 in the 2018 SEC Championship Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 1, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

The SEC football schedule is out and the games for the opening week of the season is absolutely loaded. Week 1 can’t get here soon enough.

College football fans had to wait a little longer than usual for the start of the season due to the ongoing pandemic that has already seen the Big Ten, Pac-12 and other leagues postpone their season to the fall.

But for the SEC football fans, the start of the season on Sept. 26 can’t get here soon enough because it literally does mean more.

There are championship aspirations at Alabama, Georgia and Florida and the defending champion LSU Tigers, despite losing Joe Burrow and 14 total NFL Draft picks, are still in a position to be a top-five team. And then there’s the middle-tier with Auburn and Texas A&M looking to content while others like Tennessee and Kentucky are looking to make the jump and put some top teams on upset alert.

Naturally, there are teams in various stages of a rebuild like Ole Miss and Mississippi State who have first-year coaches in Lane Kiffin and Mike Leach. And then there’s Arkansas, Missouri and Vanderbilt who have seemingly been in a perpetual state of rebuild for years.

The unique circumstances for the 2020 season will present some challenges that some teams are better equipped to navigate than others, but the excitement around the SEC is soaring now that the opening week’s slate of games has been revealed.

SEC football schedule for Week 1 is loaded with marquee matchups

There was some thought to having key rivalry games lead off the season, such as Auburn vs. Alabama, Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State and Georgia vs. Florida. However, the SEC has stashed those games for later in the season. Also, the slate of games to start the season aren’t entirely the most prestigious so if the season needs to be pushed back and these games are canceled, it won’t be that significant to the SEC championship picture.

Below is the slate of Week 1 games in the SEC for Sept. 26.

  • Alabama at Missouri
  • Florida at Ole Miss
  • Georgia at Arkansas
  • Kentucky at Auburn
  • Mississippi State at LSU
  • Tennessee at South Carolina
  • Vanderbilt at Texas A&M

The SEC Championship Game is scheduled for Dec. 19.

What SEC football game are you most looking forward to in Week 1? What game could provide a big upset to start the season?

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