Why the ACC and SEC should combine for the 2020 College Football season
The 2020 College Football season is in for a serious ride and nothing can be taken off the table at this point in the offseason.
The Big Ten announced Thursday afternoon that it would be playing an only-conference schedule during the fall of 2020, assuming a season can be played, and it was shortly reported after that announcement that the other four Power-5 leagues are expected to follow suit.
While the most realistic outcome is that we see each league play its own season with the hopes of potentially meeting up in the postseason, there is one idea that would involve some serious collaboration and flexibility, but could potentially produce some even greater results:
What if we combined the ACC and the SEC for just the 2020 College Football season?
Both conferences are going to be looking to play games and there are many rational thoughts for why this would make sense and help us produce the most exciting and- more importantly- the safest outcome for all of those involved.
Let’s take a look at three reasons why the ACC and SEC should combine for the 2020 College Football season.
*Note: We’re not necessarily saying the two conferences combine into one mega-conference. Instead, perhaps you see a scenario where Clemson, for example, plays six ACC games in-conference and then plays 3-4 games out-of-conference against teams that are closer in its geographic region*
3. Geographic sense
The most logical reason for why this makes sense is simple geography.
When you’re looking at the ACC and SEC, there are a ton of programs who are within miles of one another. You could simply have a schedule where you scheduled the ACC teams of the deep south (Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, and potentially even the North Carolina teams) with several of the other SEC teams like South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Mississippi and so on.
Some of the northern ACC teams, like Boston College, Louisville, Syracuse, Virginia and Virginia Tech, could play games with teams like Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Vanderbilt and maybe even Arkansas (though that is getting further out). You could even throw Notre Dame into that mix.
The overarching goal is to cut down on travel and that could be accomplished with the two conferences agreeing to play games with one another in a way that makes sense geographically.
2. It keeps the natural rivalries in place
There are no two conferences who have more annual rivalries than the ACC and SEC.
Under this scenario, you would be able to keep all of the geographic in-state rivalries like:
- Clemson vs. South Carolina
- Florida vs. Florida State
- Georgia vs. Georgia Tech
- Louisville vs. Kentucky
And do so in a safe way.
The main reason that conferences are choosing to go this route is so they can cut down on travel and be able to remain flexible and make quick decisions. It just doesn’t make sense, in my opinion, to say that it’s unsafe for Clemson to play South Carolina, or Florida to play Florida State, but still have the Tigers travel up to Boston College or the Gators travel to Kentucky.
1. Combined efforts could mean more revenue
Both conferences would have to be willing to full work with one another, but this could certainly be done.
The combined efforts could mean more revenue in year where revenue seems all but lost in College Football and here’s what I mean:
- You’re cutting down on cost of travel for Universities and programs
- Television ratings would increase with the games being played
- The SEC and ACC Networks could be working together as part of the ESPN umbrella
- Speaking of ESPN, you’d have first-priority coverage from the four-letter network
It makes a lot of sense to see the two conferences combine forces for one College Football season while keeping their uniqueness as a way to ‘spice things up’ with match-ups we wouldn’t be able to see otherwise and by keeping athletes within the same geographic territory for the entirety of the regular season.