Could Clemson football get two games against SEC opponents?
Could the Clemson football team somehow come away with two scheduled games against SEC opponents during the 2020 regular season? Well, that’s certainly on the table as we progress closer the scheduled start of the season.
One proposal that is currently being discussed in the ACC- as first reported by David Teel– is the idea of playing ‘geographic pods‘ in a conference-only schedule while also partnering with the SEC to fill non-conference slots. There has also been traction gaining for the ACC, SEC and Big 12 to combine for a season to provide games on the schedule, as well.
If the ACC, SEC, and Big 12 chose to partner together, we could certainly see at least one out-of-conference game for each team with the provision for them to potentially play two.
That’s where things get interesting.
Who could Clemson football play out-of-conference under this scheduling?
The idea here is that we’d see the ACC and SEC each play eight conference games and schedule up to two non-conference games, or a game that’s still in-conference, but outside of their ‘geographic pod.’ (Note: For a run-down of the ‘pod idea,’ please click here)
The Big 12, which currently plays nine, would likely keep that scheduling system and allow its teams to schedule one non-conference game.
So, in turn, we would see a lot of SEC West teams, in particular, playing a non-conference game against a Big 12 opponent and some of the SEC East teams playing games against ACC opponents.
The overarching point of why the conferences are trying to do this is to, obviously, fill the schedule and to keep in-state rivalry games- like Clemson-South Carolina and Florida-Florida State– intact.
Now, back to the original point.
If we saw the provision for ACC teams to schedule two out-of-conference games- in addition to their eight ‘pod games’- Clemson football could be in line to play two games against SEC opponents.
Obviously, the first would be South Carolina. The second? Well, your guess is as good as mine at this point.
Could we see the rivalry game against Georgia renewed? After all, the two campuses are only 74 miles apart. Maybe we see the Tigers play against the Florida Gators? That would certainly make for must-see TV. Even a game against Tennessee- while that would be a bit further trip- doesn’t seem to be out of the question.
The conferences are currently considering every scenario and it will be interesting to see what the 2020 season looks like, assuming we’re able to play this fall.