With the Coronavirus pandemic not going anywhere anytime soon in the United States, collegiate athletics continue to be altered as the health and safety of all parties involved are kept in mind by the NCAA, athletic conferences and individual programs.
The Ivy League was the first to announce a major change. They will be suspending all fall sports, and may allow them to return in the spring season. Shortly after their decision became public, the BIG 10 announced their fall sports will be played, but only with an intra-conference schedule. The PAC 12 followed by also cancelling any inter-conference play for fall sports.
The ACC, BIG 12 and SEC have yet to announce their plans for the upcoming season. However, even if they decide not to follow in the footsteps of the Ivy League or the first two Power five conferences to make drastic schedule changes, their seasons have already been affected.
Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide were set to take on USC to kick off the 2020 college football season in Dallas, Texas. Those plans have since dissolved due to USC now forced to play a conference-only schedule for the upcoming season.
Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne released a statement about the game’s cancellation, but did not offer any insight as to what the future holds for the Crimson Tide’s schedule.
So what will Alabama football’s 2020 season look like? Here are some possibilities:
3. The SEC makes a deal with another conference
This may seem like an idea not worth entertaining. However, the goal of stopping inter-conference play is to minimize the spread of the Coronavirus in the case of a potential outbreak. This way, each conference can be seen as ‘under quarantine,’ an outbreak would be held within the conference and doesn’t hinder all programs across the country.
If the SEC is opposed to cutting non-conference play and refuses to cut down to 10 games like the BIG 10 and PAC 12, then perhaps they can make a deal with another conference to fill in the gaps caused by non-conference game cancellations.
For example, an agreement between the SEC and the BIG 12 could bring some interesting matchups.
A season where Alabama plays their eight scheduled conference games for 2020 and then fills in the remaining four games with teams within the BIG 12. Fans would definitely be interested in seeing the Crimson Tide face off against other high-profile teams such as Baylor, Oklahoma, TCU and Texas .
This would certainly be a unique concept that allows for inter-conference play and a potential ‘conference vs. conference’ season.