The SEC's Latest: A 10 Game Schedule With Conference Alliances?
The Southeastern Conference is doing all that it can to preserve football in the fall.
With members from all 14 SEC schools having met earlier this past week at conference headquarters, the plan is to try and salvage fall football. Admittedly, this will determine on trends in public health data over the coming weeks, as outlined here. But the goal is to play a semblance of fall football.
Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter, in an interview with The Grove Report following Monday's meetings, iterated that playing football in the spring is a last resort for the conference, and finding a safe way to make fall football work is the main effort.
In a larger piece this morning by Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger and Pat Forde, some of those models of schedule shakeups to keep a fall season in tact have come to light. The most interesting part seems to be a discussion of a sort of alliance between conferences.
According to their story, the three most likely models of fall football scheduling are as follows:
- An eight game, conference only schedule
- A nine game schedule with eight conference games and one other Power 5 game
- A 10 game schedule with eight conference games and two other Power 5 games
Option one, the conference only schedule, is similar to what the Big Ten and Pac-12 have decided to do. Those decisions have already cancelled two games between SEC and Pac-12 schools. No SEC v. Big Ten games were on the books.
The other two plans move in a direction that is to save the other games around the conference between SEC institutions and other Power 5 schools, particularly those in the ACC and Big 12. Ole Miss, scheduled to play Baylor week one in Houston to open the season, is hoping to be able to preserve that matchup by this proposed model.
Obviously, other plans have been tossed around. Despite Carter saying he sees spring football as a last resort, it's still on the table. As is a 10-game conference schedule, which would involve each team in the SEC adding two additional conference games with members of the opposite division.
At Ole Miss, that 10-game slate would mean adding two of Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina or Missouri.
For the SEC-Big 12-ACC alliance to have any efficacy, they would have to remain in a sort of lockstep as far as decision making is concerned over the coming weeks. If one goes to conference-only games, this is likely off the table.
Benefits of a conference only slate include mainly the ability to create uniform regulations with testing and environment across the conference. Obviously, looking at the NBA and MLB returns, a controlled environment is critical.
What will actually happen? Who knows. But there's quite a few interesting ideas being tossed around.
More from The Grove Report:
Keith Carter Q&A: What Football Contingencies Are Being Discussed?
Introducing SI All-American: Scouting, Analysis and Video of 1,000 HS Recruits
SI All-American Watch List: 5 Ole Miss Commits and 25 Key Rebel Targets Named
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