With the return of SEC football, college football is officially back

SEC football’s return to action in Week 4 could not come at a better time.

College football isn’t college football unless we get to watch some SEC football on fall Saturdays.

After delaying the start of its 2020 season until the last weekend of September, all 14 SEC teams will be back in action for the first time this Saturday. Though it’ll be a 10-game, conference-only schedule, our fall Saturdays will feel slightly more normal with all these southeastern rivalry games on full display weekly. At Noon Eastern on Saturday, college football will officially be back.

Here are all seven SEC football games on tap in the league’s Week 4 return.

• No. 5 Florida Gators at Ole Miss Rebels (ESPN) – 12:00 p.m. ET
• No. 23 Kentucky Wildcats at No. 8 Auburn Tigers (SEC Network) – 12:00 p.m. ET
• Mississippi State Bulldogs at No. 6 LSU Tigers (CBS) – 3:30 p.m. ET
• No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs at Arkansas Razorbacks (SEC Network) – 4:00 p.m. ET
• No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide at Missouri Tigers (ESPN) – 7:00 p.m. ET
• Vanderbilt Commodores at No. 10 Texas A&M Aggies (SEC Network Alternate) – 7:30 p.m. ET
• No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers at South Carolina Gamecocks (SEC Network) – 7:30 p.m. ET

It’s been a long, long, long year, but guess what, college football fans? We have eight ranked SEC teams playing this weekend, including a pair of ranked teams squaring off on The Plains. The No. 23 Kentucky Wildcats will take on the No. 8 Auburn Tigers in the noon kickoff window. The other noon kickoff will be the No. 5 Florida Gators at the Ole Miss Rebels.

In the mid-afternoon slate, the Mississippi State Bulldogs making their trek into Death Valley to take on the No. 6 LSU Tigers in CBS’ SEC Game of the Week. It’ll be Mike Leach vs. Ed Orgeron, so get your popcorn ready for that. The other mid-afternoon game is between mentor Kirby Smart’s No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs vs. protege Sam Pittman’s Arkansas Razorbacks over in Fayetteville.

Incredibly, we have three SEC games under the bright lights this week. The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide hit the road to take on the Missouri Tigers, the Vanderbilt Commodores will take on the No. 10 Texas A&M Aggies at Kyle Field and the No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers will venture to Williams-Brice Stadium to try their luck against the division rival South Carolina Gamecocks.

Because it just means more, there is no reason for you to not have multiple screens going this weekend and watch all seven SEC games just because you can. We usually don’t get seven SEC games on tap each week during the regular season because of non-conference cupcakes and the like. Well, guess what? Every SEC team will play 10 conference games in 2020. We can’t believe it.

For as much fun as we had watching the Sun Belt be the Fun Belt and try to convince ourselves more than one Group of 5 program will make the New Year’s Six field, we’ll have way more fun this week with the SEC being back in action. The Big 12 has been an early disappointment thus far and while the ACC has been surprisingly good, it’s just not SEC football and everybody knows that.

The only other weekend this college football season we’re going to be this amped up about will be when all 14 Big Ten teams are back in action in Week 9. That’s about a month out, but we can’t wait for that to happen, too. For now, we can officially celebrate the return of the most glorious sport in the entire country: SEC football. You either get it or you don’t, so where do you stand?

There is nothing quite like SEC football in North American sports and we’re so glad that it’s back.

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