What a Conference-Only 2020 Football Season Would Look Like for Louisville
It has been an incredibly busy news week across collegiate athletics, but it hasn't been filled with the type of news that should make you feel confident about playing college football in 2020. The Ivy League announced that they would be postponing all fall sports until 2021, then the Big Ten decided to move to a conference-only football schedule in 2020 - with the ACC and PAC-12 reportedly expected to do the same.
For a moment, let's pretend that we are not careening towards an eventual postponement or outright cancellation of the upcoming season. What would an ACC-only season look like for Louisville Football? First let's take a look at the Cards' current non-conference slate:
- Sept. 19: Murray State (Louisville, KY)
- Sept. 26: Western Kentucky (Louisville, KY)
- Nov. 21: Notre Dame (South Bend)
- Nov. 28: Kentucky (Louisville, KY)
While Louisville's road trip to face Notre Dame counts as a non-conference game, ACC Commissioner John Swofford is expecting that the Fighting Irish "likely will be in the mix" if the league adopts an all-conference football schedule. Currently, Notre Dame has six ACC opponents on their 2020 schedule.
As a result, Louisville will have "only" three games dropped from their schedule. Losing the back-to-back games vs. Murray State & Western Kentucky are relatively inconsequential to Louisville, as it hurts the Racers & Hilltoppers more than it hurts the Cardinals. But the real damage comes from losing the annual Battle for the Governor's Cup rivalry game against Kentucky to end the regular season. However Louisville isn't the only program in the conference to lose a rivalry game due to a potential move to conference-only; as Florida State - Florida, Georgia - Georgia Tech and Clemson - South Carolina would all be lost as well.
Throw in Louisville's bye week on Oct. 17, and this is how the Cardinals' 2020 season would look if the ACC decided to pull the trigger with conference-only:
- Sept. 2: NC State
- Sept. 12: at Clemson
- Oct. 3: at Syracuse
- Oct. 10: at Boston College
- Oct. 24: Florida State
- Oct. 31: Virginia Tech
- Nov. 7: at Virginia
- Nov. 14: Wake Forest
- Nov. 21: at Notre Dame
If this really is the conference's plan, some scheduling adjustments almost certainly have to follow. Six ACC teams are currently scheduled to play on opening weekend: Louisville at NC State, Boston College at Syracuse and Clemson at Georgia Tech. On the other side of that coin, Wake Forest & Virginia would not play until Sept. 26, with Virginia Tech & Florida State having their seasons start the next week on Oct. 3. It only makes sense to push back the games taking place over the first couple weeks, especially since the ACC has already delayed competition of Fall Olympic Sports to Sept. 1.
On top of that, the ACC will almost certainly be forced to add cross-divisional opponents to every member's 2020 schedule. The Big Ten's move to conference-only puts them at nine games at the least, as does the PAC-12 should they decide to follow suit. The ACC only plays eight conference games during the regular season, so adding additional conference games in order to be level with other Power Five schools should be an easy call to make - but we'll see.
Nothing is set in stone yet, as the ACC has yet to formally announce the decision to move to conference-only in 2020. But if they do, expect a radically different schedule for the upcoming season - if it's played at all.
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