Missouri already knew the ten teams it would face in the 2020 season. Now it knows the sequence.
The Tigers are set to play Alabama in Columbia on September 26, as just revealed by the Southeastern Conference earlier on Monday afternoon. Here is the rest of the scheme.
The Tigers play six consecutive games to begin the season, and get their first open week on November 7th. All teams are eliminated on December 12 with the SEC title game set for December 19, allowing some flexibility due to the unkowns of a COVID-19 affected scheme.
On July 30, the SEC chose to move to a ten-game, conference-only format for the 2020 season. That meant BYU, Eastern Michigan, Central Arkansas and Louisiana were outside the Missouri schedule. Eight days later, the league announced the two additional opponents for each team. Missouri drew Alabama and LSU, making the Tigers the recipients of the most expensive plus two in the league.
Those are two of Mizzou’s first three opponents. In the first three weeks, the Tigers will face teams that combined to go 34-7 last season with two of those games on the road.
There were reports that some coaches were less than excited about the way the league was approaching the new schedules.
“At this point, it’s sour grapes,” Drinkwitz said Monday. “They’ll discover who we play and that’s who we play. It’s not like every team you’ve got to be a bad football team. I think the interview’s candidate was that everyone understood exactly how the teams were split. At the end of the day … put it on the schedule, let’s rock and roll. “
The second half of the Tigers’ schedule begins with the favorite in the Eastern Division, as Georgia enters the city. It will mark the third straight week without a road trip for the Tigers with two home games the open week sandwich. Mizzou ends the season with South Carolina, Mississippi State and Arkansas, three of the more favorable games on what becomes one of football’s most difficult schedules. The Tigers’ first five opponents combined to go 48-18 a year ago; their last five ended 32-32.
