What If SEC Goes Conference Only for 2020 Football Season
All we have at the moment is speculation surrounding the college football season, which is in stark contrast to the feeling just three short weeks ago when it looked like we would have a season.
Nothing is a given either way at the moment. With the SEC's 14 athletic directors and conference officials set to meet in Birmingham on Monday, it opens up more of the what-if scenarios on precisely what, and how things might look this season.
How will the SEC schedule look in 2020 if the conference adopts the league only games scenario?
According to Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde, one of the possibilities under consideration in the Big-10, who announced on Thursday that they would move to play conference games only, is to add one additional conference game to the current schedule of each member institution.
Forde's story, title seems to remove hope for the season at all- which is a possibility- where he had this to say of the option for the Big-10.
"Sources told Sports Illustrated that one Big Ten option under consideration is a ten-game slate, one more than they schedule annually, with division games potentially moved to the front of the schedule. (You ready for Ohio State-Michigan in September or October?) Perhaps one opponent would be added to existing schedules, or perhaps multiple matchups would be recast based on geography."
The SEC currently has an 8-game conference schedule, six matchups against division foes, and two cross-division matchups. Would the SEC add just one game, or would the consider adding two games to have a 10-game season for each team?
That decision is one that won't come until after a decision is made to move to the conference only format, but it is certainly one to ponder.
Considering each team faces their division rivals, any new games added by the conference would almost certainly come from the opposite division.
For Vanderbilt, that could mean adding a date with Alabama in week one considering both teams are slated to play non-conference opponents.
It could also mean a date with defending national champs, LSU, who have non-conference games in both weeks one and two.
The prospects of opening the season versus the Tide and Tigers before getting the eastern division preseason favorites in Florida and Georiga, along with an improving tandem of Kentucky and Tennesse and with top-25 Texas A&M on the slate already, is scary.
While this is not necessarily how it will go, the fact that Bama and the Bengal Tigers would each need games versus the east, it would seem impossible for Vanderbilt to miss both of them and get games against Arkansas and Mississippi State in their place.
Of course, there is a chance Auburn could be one opponent, but that's only slightly better than the Tide or Tigers.
In short, there is no right way for Vanderbilt's schedule to improve under the conference only game format. But at least it would be more entertaining than Mercer.
