NCAA Power Five conferences have largely moved toward a proposed conference-only schedule for 2020 recently thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Big Ten declaring a conference-only schedule on July 9, the Pac-12 follow their example the next day. , and the ACC announced a mostly conference schedule (including Notre Dame, with one possible exception per school for a non-ND game). July 29. On Thursday, the SEC stated that they will play a 10-game conference. -only schedule this fall, one that starts on September 26 (much later than other conferences have announced so far) and features a conference championship game (2018 conference championship game logo seen above) December 19 (two weeks after the initial date of December 4). And as Ross Dellinger of Illustrated Sports On Thursday, that means a large number of Power Five Interconference games still active (with SEC schools playing ACC or Big 12 teams; games against Big Ten and Pac-12 teams were previously eliminated) are now gone.
The SEC, in conference only, eliminates 10 remaining Power 5 matchups within the league, including four traditional rivalry games: https: //t.co/XjpJx062ba pic.twitter.com/0WbbULqccD
– Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) July 30, 2020
What is perhaps particularly interesting here is how the ACC got the SEC to blame for the cancellation of rivalry games between schools in each conference: Georgia Tech-Georgia, Florida-Florida State, Kentucky-Louisville, and South Carolina-Clemson . ACC teams were supposed to host three of those games this year (all except Georgia Tech-Georgia), and there was some logic in leaving a window open for those (and also Mississippi State-NC State, not one rivalry game, but another SEC-ACC kit).
And with all of those games except Georgia Tech-Georgia taking place on ACC territory (and that being an intrastate game), the ACC requirement that non-conference games be played in the ACC school state did not seem pose a problem for those particular games. So ACC left a lot of opportunity for these games to happen. (Whether the conferences would have agreed to test protocols, etc., is still a question, but is now a moot point.) And there’s a lot of politics involved in all those rivalry games, so it’s useful for the ACC and its schools to be able to say “No, we don’t cancel them, the SEC does.” And that may have some implications for whether, how and where those rivalry games are played in 2021.
Of course, there is some logic in the SEC going to play alone in the conference. That follows what Big Ten and Pac-12 have done (and what ACC has done to a great extent), and makes it easier to create a schedule and leave room for adjustments to that schedule if there are postponements or cancellations thanks to the pandemic, and to standardize COVID-19 testing, quarantine and prevention protocols for both schools participating in a game. And the SEC can now fully program as they see fit.
And with this move made, the ACC can also go to the conference alone. And so can the Big 12, which hasn’t announced much yet (aside from canceling a planned virtual Media Day that would be set for Monday, August 3, a day after it was announced). It looks like this may be a season with Power Five schools playing within their conferences. And that’s an added blow to smaller conference schools that got a lot of their budgets from non-conference “buy” games in P5 schools, but taking care of them isn’t exactly a priority for P5 conferences.
It goes without saying that all of this is subject to change, especially with the recent increases in US COVID-19 numbers.All kinds of season planning right now is pretty hypothetical. But it’s definitely remarkable to hear the SEC announce that they are switching to a conference-only model and watch the different games (including rivalry games) they annihilate.
[Ross Dellenger on Twitter/SEC]
