Auburn junior receiver Anthony Schwartz provided a touch of levity after the Southeastern Conference decided to implement a 10-game football season consisting solely of league contests.
“Does this mean that more teams will be playing three top-five teams besides us?” Schwartz posted on Twitter, referencing Auburn’s plight of being the lone SEC program required annually to face the trio of Alabama, Georgia and LSU.
The task of formulating the 10-game slate falls on SEC executive associate commissioner Mark Womack, and the scheduling headaches may just be starting. The league’s decision not to play any nonconference games eliminated a quartet of season-ending matchups against Atlantic Coast Conference schools: Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Kentucky-Louisville and South Carolina-Clemson.
ACC officials voted Wednesday to play 10 league games plus one nonconference contest in order to spare those rivalries, but the SEC scheduling model revealed Thursday instantly axed them.
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said Thursday in a virtual news conference that the desire to start the season Sept. 26, play 10 conference games in an 11-week stretch and keep Dec. 12 available for rescheduling purposes simply resulted in the league running out of Saturdays. The Gators were scheduled to visit Florida State on Nov. 28, so will next season’s game take place in Gainesville or Tallahassee?