Five bold, crazy, stupid, daring, wacky SEC college football predictions for the 2020 season.
5 (Potentially) Stupid SEC Predictions
As if everything we’re going through in the college football world – and in real life – isn’t stupid enough, let’s take it all down a few levels.
What if you were told last year at this time that Lane Kiffin would be at Ole Miss and Mike Leach at Mississippi State?
What if you were told that Lynn Bowden would turn out to be a star quarterback at Kentucky, and Tennessee would end up winning a bowl game after starting 1-4 with home losses to Georgia State and BYU?
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What if you were told last year at this time that LSU would come up with – arguably – the greatest season in college football history, and Joe Burrow would win the Heisman and be the no-brainer No. 1 overall pick in the draft?
They’re the wild and wacky curveballs that make each season fun. Enough safe and sane, it’s time for dumb and dangerous with five (potentially) stupid predictions thrown at the wall to see if they stick.
To keep this fun, this entire Stick To Sports piece is in a safe, COVID-19-free bubble – for the most part.
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2020 SEC Team Previews
East Florida | Georgia | Kentucky | Missouri
South Carolina | Tennessee | Vanderbilt
West Alabama | Arkansas | Auburn | LSU
Miss State | Ole Miss | Texas A&M
– 2020 CFN SEC Preview
– SEC Week 1 Instant Predictions
– CFN All-SEC Team & Top 30 Players
– CFN SEC Team-By-Team Predictions
– SEC Schedule, Most Interesting Games
5. Texas A&M at Auburn is going to be massive
We’re getting (potentially) stupid here, but no, the insanity hasn’t crept in yet to make the call that Texas A&M at Auburn on December 5th will be for the West’s spot in the SEC Championship.
Buuuuuuut …
No. No, no, no. Even with Texas A&M getting to host LSU and Florida, it’s still asking way too much to expect it to be 8-1 – assume a loss at Alabama – before rolling into Jordan-Hare.
Auburn has to go to both Georgia and Alabama. Even if it splits those, beating LSU at home is still a tall task. However, win two of those three games, annnnnnnnd …
NO. No, no, no. I can’t make that leap. It’s still going to be the Alabama at LSU game on November 14th that turns out to be the biggest deal in the SEC West, and there are plenty of other landmines for both teams along the way.
However, the scheduled regular season finale will still be huge, but for other reasons.
This year, merely having a winning record will be a tall task for most schools. Just six – Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee – were able to come up with a winning campaign in SEC play last year, and now it’s all SEC games all of the time. So Auburn and Texas A&M being above .500 really will mean something.
However, when it comes to grouchy fan bases, the loser of this game will have to deal with a whole lot of guff.
Unless some sort of scandal pops up – let’s just see where this Derrius Guice thing goes at LSU – or someone leaves for another gig or retires, Will Muschamp at South Carolina and Derek Mason at Vanderbilt are the two SEC coaches in the most danger of losing their jobs with a bad season.
There’s no possible chance Jimbo Fisher gets fired at Texas A&M – two words: buyout clause – but another underwhelming campaign would put the pressure on in Year Four to at least make some sort of a move to be a factor in the SEC West.
In his third season after going 17-9 in the first two years, this is when the program is supposed to rise up and rock. It might happen, but lose at Auburn and it’ll likely be a pedestrian 6-4/7-3 campaign.
Gus Malzahn took his team to a BCS Championship game, has beaten Alabama as often as could reasonably be asked for – going 3-4 – and he has two SEC Championship appearances in his seven years.
And it never seems to be enough.
He hasn’t lost fewer than four games since his first season, and his job security – media creation or not – always seems to be on a one-bad-game-away alert.
The loser of A&M-Auburn is going to have the pressure on in the offseason, and the winner might just end up playing for the SE…
NO. I can’t do it.
NEXT: Florida and Georgia will be good, and …