The SEC has announced that they will play football this fall, although they will not play non-conference teams. They released their schedule for the 2020 season … well, at least for the two new opponents that each team will face.
Who would have figured that SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey would still find a way to give their top tier teams an easier path through the season? Don’t believe me? Well, let’s look at who’s been added to the schedule for some of the top teams in the conference.
Defending NCAA champions LSU have picked up Missouri and Vanderbilt, which are two easy wins. Alabama has Kentucky and Missouri, who will be no trouble for Nick Saban and company. Auburn (who some would say is the third strongest team in the SEC West) will take on Tennessee and South Carolina. Although these teams are slightly tougher than LSU and Alabama’s additions, they should be easy work for Auburn.
The SEC East isn’t quite as competitive of a division as their SEC West counterparts, and the top two teams are Georgia and Florida quite clearly. Dan Mullen’s Gators will now take on Arkansas and Texas A&M. The latter is possibly the toughest game that’s been added for these top dogs. Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs will also pick up another easy win in Arkansas, and their other addition will be Mississippi State. I expect they’ll be better this year, but there is still a decent gap in talent between the two Bulldogs teams.
Sankey was quoted as saying, “We made every effort to create a schedule that is as competitive as possible and builds on the existing eight conference games that had already been scheduled for 2020.”
Let’s be completely honest with ourselves for a minute though. Does it really look like the SEC made “every effort to create a schedule that is as competitive as possible” to you? Because it sure as hell doesn’t to me.
I have never been a big fan of Greg Sankey, and I personally believe that he does everything in his power to cater to the top teams in the conference. Maybe I’m just a bitter Mississippi State fan, but it does seem like the teams with smaller fanbases always tend to get the cold shoulder. I’m not totally sure what process was used when making these new schedules, but it damn sure doesn’t seem like they were really looking to keep things fair for all teams to me.
