SEC football scheduling changes eliminate pre-Georgia/Florida bye week

SEC football schedule changes eliminates Georgia football’s bye before facing Florida football.

The bye before Georgia football vs. Florida football is gone due to SEC football schedule changes.

With two SEC games being postponed from the Week 7 slate due to coronavirus outbreaks, naturally, half of the Power 5 conference’s teams will have to adjust accordingly. Because of the following changes, the annual bye before the major SEC East rivalry game down in Jacksonville, Florida will be no more. The Georgia Bulldogs and the Florida Gators will now play on Halloween.

Here are the scheduling changes made by the SEC after two postponements.

• Kentucky at Missouri: Oct. 31 to Oct. 24 at 4:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. CT on SEC Network
• South Carolina at LSU: Oct. 24, game time changed to 7:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. CT on ESPN
• Georgia at Kentucky: Oct. 24 to Oct. 31 at 12:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. CT on SEC Network
• Missouri at Florida: Oct. 24 to Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network ALT
• Vanderbilt at Missouri: Oct. 17 to Dec. 12, time and network TBD
• LSU at Florida: Oct. 17 to Dec. 12, time and network TBD

These six changes were made because of coronavirus outbreaks on both the Florida and Vanderbilt Commodores’ rosters. Moving the two Oct. 17 games back to Dec. 12 makes sense, but the SEC can’t make this many changes in a few weeks down the line. The late start to the season had everything to do with limiting outbreaks after fall semester began on SEC college campuses.

Obviously, the biggest ancillary effect from these changes is the nixing of the pre-Georgia/Florida bye. These bitter SEC East rivals are slated to meet down in Jacksonville on Saturday, Nov. 7 this year at 3:30 p.m. ET. It’s the one game CBS always claims first when picking its season’s schedule. Georgia must play at the Kentucky Wildcats, while Florida hosts the Missouri Tigers on Halloween.

Georgia will now go on bye after this weekend’s game at the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Dawgs will have an extra week to get ready for Kentucky, instead of having an extra week to get ready for Florida like the schedule initially called for. Normally, this would be a big issue, but we all know we have to be willing to adjust on the fly in the age of the coronavirus so that we can have football.

Look for Georgia to have one hell of a game plan ahead of the Kentucky game this season.

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