After the Big Ten and reportedly the ACC have decided to go to conference-only schedules for the 2020 football season, news broke on Thursday evening that the SEC will discuss taking the same course of action.
The Southeastern Conference might prove to be the final holdout as it attempts to wait as long as possible before making a decision on potentially changing its schedule, 247Sports has learned. The conference is in no hurry to follow the lead of the Big Ten, which surprised Power 5 conference commissioners with its announcement Thursday afternoon, but times are changing — and scheduling tweaks appear to be inevitable.
The SEC is not scheduled to discuss a plan to potentially move to conference-only games until next week, a person familiar with discussions in the conference office tells 247Sports. That timeline may be accelerated after the Big Ten’s surprise announcement Thursday, but the plan is for athletics directors to discuss the logistics of a conference-only schedule next week.
Discussions will include an eight- to 10-game schedule in the SEC, though no final decision was expected to be reached at the meeting. The Big Ten’s decision, however, may change that. Publicly, the SEC remains steady with its plan to wait until late July or early August to make any decisions on the upcoming football season, which is threatened by the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
The SEC’s head coaches conducted a meeting with conference administrators, including commissioner Greg Sankey, on Thursday morning and were told at the time the conference will wait as long as possible before making any decisions on the football season, including whether to start on time or move to a conference-only schedule, a person involved in the call told 247Sports.