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SEC Football Schedule 2020: 5 Things You Need To Know
SEC football schedule 2020 – what are the five things you need to know? What are the five things that matter? SEC Football Schedule 2020: 5 Things You Need To Know – Who gets the rested…
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5. Who gets the rested teams?
Most conferences try to figure this out.
Who has to play a whole slew of teams coming off an off-week?
More to the point in the SEC, who gets the teams with two weeks of rest, and who gets the teams that has a light scrimmage against an FCS team the week before?
For another time, the SEC gets roasted every year for late-season layups – other conferences eat their cupcakes early, but the SEC mostly has theirs late – but it’s a fair break since most teams usually have tough overall schedules to eat with.
Alabama has usually been the team that gets everyone’s rested-best shot, but this year things are evening out just a wee bit.
The Tide still gets an SEC-high three teams coming off an off-week – Tennessee, Mississippi State and LSU – but the only team that gets an FCSer the week before is Arkansas.
Mississippi State (Auburn and Missouri), Tennessee (Arkansas and Kentucky) and Texas A&M (Ole Miss and South Carolina) are the only other SEC teams that have to deal with two conference games against rested teams.
Florida and Georgia each get the week off before playing each other, but that’s it for both of them.
South Carolina has to play Vanderbilt off of an off-week, and Ole Miss has to play a rejuvenated Texas A&M.
So, basically, Alabama gets hosed in all of this.
Meanwhile, Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt all get to avoid playing anyone in SEC play who had two weeks off to prepare.
Playing teams with time off is one thing, but the bigger deal is …
4. Who misses the big boys from the other division?
It continues to be the biggest unfair advantage in college football.
With a 14-team league and an eight-game conference schedule, that means each team only has two games against teams from the other division. Natural rivalries are kept in place, and while they create great matchups, it stinks to be Tennessee with Alabama on the schedule every year.
The other yearly interdivisional rivalries …
LSU and Florida, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Mississippi State, Arkansas and Missouri, and South Carolina and Texas A&M.
If you’re Arkansas, Missouri isn’t a walk in the park – no one is for the Hogs right now – but that’s a lot better than having to play Florida and Georgia from the East. Tennessee is the other interdivisional game.
That’s a plus for the Vols. Yeah, they have to face Alabama, but this year playing Arkansas helps ease the pain.
No one from the East has to play both LSU and Alabama, but Georgia gets to go to Tuscaloosa early on, to go along with the annual date against Auburn.
South Carolina has to go to LSU, and that’s on top of the yearly game against Texas A&M – more on the Gamecock schedule in a moment.
Missouri can’t complain. It misses Alabama, Auburn and LSU – playing Arkansas and Mississippi State is nice and breezy by comparison.
In the West, no one plays both Florida and Georgia, but Arkansas, Mississippi State and Texas A&M miss both of the stars of the East.
Alabama has it the worst in the division with Georgia on the slate along with the trip to Tennessee. LSU has its date with Florida, but it also plays at home against South Carolina. Ole Miss gets the Gators, but that comes after going to Vanderbilt.
3. The non-conference games
Again, every SEC team has its nice-and-breezy week. In the best conference in college football, go ahead and have that light scrimmage to break things up. That’s okay, but there had better be a strong date against another Power Five team in non-conference play.
There always is, but it’s a constant beef from other leagues – the SEC doesn’t really like to travel.
Oh sure, it’ll play neutral site games in Atlanta, and Houston, and Arlington, but it’s not easy to get the top teams out of their respective comfort zones.
To keep hammering that point home, most top SEC teams deserve a wee bit of a pass – they all get an Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Florida, or Auburn to deal with at some points.
So what’s everyone’s big non-conference game, and who’s the FCSer pay-to-play date?
East
Florida – It’s a relatively light non-conference schedule if Florida State isn’t any good. That comes at the end of the regular season; Eastern Washington and its dangerous FCS offense kicks it off.
Georgia – The Bulldogs start out with a strong game against Virginia in Atlanta, and they end with their annual ACC date against Georgia Tech. However, after playing the Cavs, they get East Tennessee State.
Kentucky – At Louisville. That’s the regular-season-ender, and Eastern Illinois is in the middle of the campaign.
Missouri – Central Arkansas kicks things off for the Eli Drinkwitz era, but going to BYU is a decent test. Watch out for Louisiana late in the season.
South Carolina – Give South Carolina a hard pass for scheduling Wofford. That comes before the date at Clemson.
Tennessee – The Vols deserve a break after going to Oklahoma. They get Furman sandwiched between the Sooners and Florida.
Vanderbilt – The season kicks off against Mercer, but two weeks later is a trip to Kansas State.
West
Alabama – USC in Jerry World -that’s a rock-solid non-conference game. The UT-Martin game comes between at LSU and Texas A&M.
Arkansas – The Hogs have to go to Notre Dame, and they get Charleston Southern in the middle of the season.
Auburn – Alcorn State kicks things off, and then it’s North Carolina in Atlanta.
LSU – There’s no dogging the defending national champs for playing Texas. The Nicholls State scrimmage comes before going to Florida.
Miss State – At NC State isn’t as strong a game as it looked to be when it was originally scheduled, but it’s fine. Alabama A&M is the tune-up before the showdown against Ole Miss.
Ole Miss – Lane Kiffin starts out with a showdown against Baylor in Houston. That’s followed up by SE Missouri State.
Texas A&M – After scheduling Clemson the last two years, give A&M a bit of a pass for Colorado being the hardest non-conference game. Abilene Christian starts it all off.
Okay, so you still don’t like all the games against bad teams. Fine. This year, the SEC is giving you a present …
2. The last two weeks of the SEC West
You’re not a good enough person to deserve what you’re getting with the last two weeks of the SEC season, mainly because the second-to-last week is awesome.
Usually, the big guys get something nice and easy before closing things out with their annual monster showdowns – Alabama played Western Carolina before going to Auburn last year, Auburn played Samford before hosting the Tide – but that’s not happening this season.
Look at what the fine folk in the SEC scheduling offices are delivering to you …
On November 21st, LSU goes to Auburn and Texas A&M will go to Alabama. It’s a relative week off for most SEC East teams, but Georgia is going to Kentucky.
And then comes the yearly payoff that’s even bigger this year considering what November 21st is for the top teams in the West.
On November 28th, while Florida is going to Florida State, Kentucky is traveling to Louisville, and South Carolina plays at Clemson, as always it’s Auburn and Alabama – this year in Tuscaloosa – along with LSU having to go to Texas A&M.
That all leads to …
1. 2020 SEC schedule winners and losers
With all of the massive discrepancies in cross-divisional games, and with the timing of several of the other battles, your SEC scheduling winners and losers – at least how it all looks deep in the offseason – are …
Winner: Arkansas. It might not be a great team Sam Pittman is taking over, but there’s no complaining about the schedule. There’s no Florida or Georgia from the East, LSU and Alabama are both home games, and the team doesn’t leave the state for the whole month of October.
Loser: South Carolina. Didn’t the Gamecocks catch a bad break with last year’s schedule? Yup, and now try this – road games at Florida, LSU and Clemson, along with home games against Georgia and Texas A&M. If there’s a misfire at Kentucky early on, or against Tennessee, uh-oh.
Winner: Texas A&M. It’s all relative in the SEC West, but start with replacing Clemson with Colorado on the non-conference side. The Aggies go all of September without playing a team that went to a bowl game, and after going to Mississippi State – very winnable – they get a Fresno State team that didn’t go bowling.
They had to play Alabama and Auburn on the road, but they only leave Texas once between the start of the season and October 17th. Three of the last four games – including LSU – are at home.
Loser: Florida. The overall schedule is actually not that bad – there’s no Alabama or Auburn from the West – however, the Gators have their annual date against LSU right before leaving Gainesville for a big chunk of the season. After hosting the Tigers on October 10th, they’re not back at home for a game until November 14th.
And finally …
Winner/Loser: Alabama. Which way do you want to look at this?
Bama doesn’t play a team that went bowling in a true road game – the opener against USC is in Arlington – until October 24th at Tennessee. However …
The LSU game is in Baton Rouge.
Bama closes out with three straight home games against UT Martin, Texas A&M and Auburn. However …
It has a funky midseason run of three road games in four dates, all around an open week. That means the game against Mississippi State on October 17th is the only home game from September 26th until November 14th.
