On Thursday, the Big Ten announced that all conference teams would be moving to a conference-only schedule for the 2020 college football season. Could the SEC be following in their footsteps?
According to a report, that will be up for discussion soon.
Brandon Marcello of 247Sports reported on Thursday that the SEC plans to at least discuss the possibility of scrapping all non-conference games for all 14 SEC teams and playing a conference-only schedule for the 2020 season.
As of right now, the SEC is not scheduled to discuss any such plans until sometime next week, but the Big Ten’s announcement on Thursday could accelerate that timeline. For now, though, the plan is for conference athletics directors to discuss those possibilities next week.
Those discussions will debate the logistics of playing either an eight-game or 10-game schedule exclusively with SEC teams and no non-conference opponents. A final decision on the schedule is not expected to be reached during the meeting, however.
Per Marcello’s report, all 14 SEC head football coaches conducted a meeting with conference administrators and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on Thursday morning. In that meeting, the head coaches were told that the SEC will wait as long as possible before making any decisions about the upcoming 2020 football season.
The ACC has already discussed a conference-only schedule for the 2020 season, and that plan has been shared with all ACC head coaches according to Brett McMurphy of WatchStadium.com. But as of now, the Big Ten is the only major conference to go ahead with that plan, as both the Big 12 and Pac-12 have not made any determinations, and the SEC is not moving that way just yet.
Tennessee’s current 2020 football schedule features four non-conference match-ups and eight SEC games. The Vols open the season at home on September 5th hosting Charlotte then go on the road to face Big 12 foe Oklahoma on September 12th. Tennessee then returns home to host Furman on September 19th, and the Vols’ next and final non-conference game is a home game against Troy on November 21st.
The eight SEC teams the Vols are currently slated to face this season are Florida (Sep. 26), Missouri (Oct. 3), South Carolina (Oct. 10), Alabama (Oct. 24), Arkansas (Oct. 31), Kentucky (Nov. 7), Georgia (Nov. 14), and Vanderbilt (Nov. 28).
No SEC schools were scheduled to face a Big Ten team in the regular season of the 2020 season.
