Three takeaways from Kentucky’s 2020 football schedule
Three takeaways from the SEC’s football schedule release on Monday night:
1. Kentucky gets a November to remember — or curse.
The Cats’ 2020 coronavirus slate is certainly back-loaded. Mark Stoops’ troops play Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 21. (The same Alabama that ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit picked to win the SEC at the conclusion of the SEC Network’s schedule show.) A week later, the Cats travel to The Swamp to face Florida in Gainesville. (The same Florida a lot of experts are picking to unseat Georgia as SEC East champs.) Side note: Kentucky hasn’t played the Gators in November since 1991.
So the trick will be to build a cushion before those back-to-back backbreakers. That’s certainly doable. After the opening-week trip to Auburn on Sept. 26, UK gets OIe Miss and Mississippi State at home. It will sandwich trips to Tennessee (Oct. 17) and Missouri (Oct. 31) around a tough home game against Georgia (Oct. 24).
The Cats will have two weeks to prepare for a home game with Vanderbilt (Nov. 14) thanks to an open date on Nov. 7. Then comes the pair of rough trips before finishing the season at home against South Carolina on Dec. 5.
You can look at the twin November terrors as a glass half empty or a glass half full. Visits to Alabama and Florida give the Cats a real shot at national attention if they could win one of those games, much less two. And if they lose both, well, you knew they were going to be tough tasks no matter where they fell on the calendar.
2. The pause that refreshes should benefit these Cats.
It should be noted, there are no guarantees that the schedule laid out on Monday night will go exactly as planned, much less if it will even start. Outbreaks are possible. Postponements are possible. Remember, the virus is in control. That’s why the SEC put a Dec. 12 or Dec. 19 window on the league championship game. It might need that Saturday, Dec. 12, date for make-up games.
Still, when you’re facing a conference opponent week after week after week, with no Eastern Illinois or Kent State or Western Directional State in between, the placing of the open date is a big deal. In Kentucky’s case, that open date falls on Nov. 7 after Stoops’ team will have played six games.
In my mind, that’s good. I’d prefer the open date later rather than sooner. Suppose a player contracts the coronavirus early in the year. Chances are, given recovery and quarantine time, that player is likely to miss at least a couple of games. If he contracts the virus in late October or early November, he will get an extra week to recover without missing a game.
It will also give some Cats time to heal their bumps and bruises from the first six games, plus Stoops an extra week of preparation for the Alabama and Florida trips down the road. That can’t hurt.
One more thing. With Terry Wilson coming off a major injury from last year, the UK quarterback should benefit from the season opener being pushed back to Sept. 26. It might also help him to have the open date later in the year. He can catch his breath before the final four games.
3. This SEC schedule is the wave of the future.
Those were the words of ESPN’s Rece Davis at the end of the broadcast, but I couldn’t agree more. I’d be all for a 10-game conference schedule moving forward. Leave one game for a non-conference tune-up game against a MAC school or an FCS opponent. Leave the final week for the traditional conference crossover rivalry games, aka the Kentucky-Louisville battle for the Governor’s Cup.
If this season does play out — and that’s a BIG if — then it will be hard for the SEC to return to just an eight-game schedule. There will be so many great matchups week after week this season, how will the league go back to trying to sell Alabama-Western Carolina or Auburn-Samford or Florida-Towson. The SEC should at least play nine games, a la the Big Ten and the Pac-12.
Here’s another factor: The loss of money this year. Even if the SEC completes its 10-game schedule, most or not all games will be played without the benefit of fans. That’s lost ticket revenue. There will be other financial losses, as well. The SEC might need a 10-game conference schedule in 2021 to refill the coffers. Let’s hope so.
SEC 2020 football schedule
Sept. 26
- Alabama at Missouri
- Florida at Ole Miss
- Georgia at Arkansas
- Kentucky at Auburn
- Miss State at LSU
- Tennessee at South Carolina
- Vanderbilt at Texas A&M
Oct. 3
- Texas A&M at Alabama
- Arkansas at Miss State
- Auburn at Georgia
- South Carolina at Florida
- Ole Miss at Kentucky
- LSU at Vanderbilt
Oct. 10
- Alabama at Ole Miss
- Arkansas at Auburn
- Florida at Texas A&M
- Tennessee at Georgia
- Miss State at Kentucky
- Missouri at LSU
- South Carolina at Vanderbilt
Oct. 17
- Georgia at Alabama
- Ole Miss at Arkansas
- Auburn at South Carolina
- LSU at Florida
- Kentucky at Tennessee
- Texas A&M at Miss State
- Vanderbilt at Missouri
Oct. 24
- Alabama at Tennessee
- Auburn at Ole Miss
- Missouri at Florida
- Georgia at Kentucky
- South Carolina at LSU
Oct. 31
- Miss State at Alabama
- Arkansas at Texas A&M
- LSU at Auburn
- Kentucky at Missouri
- Ole Miss at Vanderbilt
Nov. 7
- Tennessee at Arkansas
- Florida vs Georgia
- Vanderbilt at Miss State
- Texas A&M at South Carolina
Nov. 14
- Alabama at LSU
- Arkansas at Florida
- Auburn at Miss State
- Georgia at Missouri
- Vanderbilt at Kentucky
- South Carolina at Ole Miss
- Texas A&M at Tennessee
Nov. 21
- Kentucky at Alabama
- LSU at Arkansas
- Tennessee at Auburn
- Florida at Vanderbilt
- Miss State at Georgia
- Ole Miss at Texas A&M
- Missouri at South Carolina
Nov. 28
- Auburn at Alabama
- Arkansas at Missouri
- Kentucky at Florida
- Georgia at South Carolina
- LSU at Texas A&M
- Miss State at Ole Miss
- Tennessee at Vanderbilt
Dec. 5
- Alabama at Arkansas
- Texas A&M at Auburn
- Florida at Tennessee
- Vanderbilt at Georgia
- South Carolina at Kentucky
- Ole Miss at LSU
- Missouri at Miss State
Dec. 12 or Dec. 19
- SEC Championship Game
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 8:18 PM.
