Chaos Takes Over As SEC, UGA Try to Schedule 2020
ATHENS - Kirby Smart, Georgia and the SEC could start preparing for a year that involves playing only SEC foes.
In a summer where anything goes, several moving parts shook the start of the college football world Wednesday as the ACC announced its ten-game conference-only schedule that included Notre Dame as well as one, out-of-conference game.
Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger reported Wednesday afternoon that the SEC is “moving closer to an agreement on a conference-only schedule of 10 games.”
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey issued a statement after the SI report saying that he would not speculate on the report.
“It is not appropriate to respond to anonymous sources and speculation,” Sankey said in the statement. “We continue to our discussions focused on the return of fall sports, including football. We will announced any decisions at the appropriate time.”
Meanwhile, Georgia’s opener with Virginia is all but dead after the ACC issued rulings limiting their members from playing out-of-conference foes anywhere other than in their home state. The possibility of Georgia opening the season in Atlanta still remains.
Gary Stokan, President and CEO of Peach Bowl and person responsible for putting on the Chick-fil-A kickoff games, said last week that if the event lost UGA and FSU because of out-of-conference rivalry games, that the event would try to put Virginia and West Virginia together.
“We just have to wait until the end of July to see what the ACC, SEC and Big 12 do. Are they going to play conference plus one? If they are they we lose Georgia and FSU, and we will put Virginia and West Virginia together.”
Newly-agreed to ACC rules dictate that neither FSU nor Virginia are permitted to play out-of-state non-conference games. That leaves both the Bulldogs and Mountaineers with no dance partner at the dance.
But if the SEC is only going to allow a conference-only schedule that would likely mean that the Dawgs would also lose the ability to play in-state rival Georgia Tech, something that seems hard to believe based on conversions Dawg Post has had with insiders - as well as the fact that the ACC has scheduled one out-of-conference game per member institution in its scheduling.
The ACC released a new schedule on Wednesday without dates for the matchups. The SEC’s athletic directors met Wednesdays. Presidents of the 14 schools of the SEC are scheduled to meet on Thursday.