What could a SEC-only schedule look like for South Carolina Gamecocks football?

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Published Jul 10, 2020

What could a SEC-only schedule look like?

Collyn Taylor • GamecockScoop

Beat Writer

@collyntaylor

To say this week hasn't been a good one for college football would be an understatement.

After the Ivy League canceled all fall sports, the Big 10 announced a 10-game, conference-only season Thursday with the ACC potentially following suit.

The SEC hasn't come out and made any decision about next season yet, although there's a report of commissioners meeting next week.

If the conference does go to 10-game schedule with only conference games, GamecockCentral has you covered for what that might look like.

For this, we scrapped divisions and focused solely on what would be the easiest for travel, which means cutting down on flights and long traveling. In this exercise, the season is starting on-time, which seems unlikely at the moment, with five home games and three bye weeks.

Also see: Cromer ready to continue familial legacy at South Carolina

Sept. 5: vs. Ole Miss

Gamecocks hosting the Rebels, a team they played last in 2018 and beat 48-44. They're playing early because it's one of the longer trips of the season (for Ole Miss) at 548 miles or 7 hours and 58 minutes.

Sept. 12: vs. Georgia

If the schedule gets reshuffled, why not put South Carolina-Georgia back in it's typical slot? The series has deviated from this recently but the two teams have made a habit of playing usually the second or third week of the season.

If the season gets shaken like an etch-a-sketch, it would make sense to move this up. Plus, it's only 167 miles between the two, and it's an easy trip for Georgia.

Sept. 19: at Kentucky

This is one of the furthest trips for South Carolina at 433 miles, or right under seven hours, but the Gamecocks have to travel for a few games if college football happens this fall.

Kentucky traveled to Williams-Brice in 2019, which means the Gamecocks would need to make the return trip in 2020. This year's originally scheduled game was on Sept. 26, so moving it up a week couldn't affect the timing much.

Sept. 26: Bye Week

The first of a few bye weeks to give teams a chance to asses things and potentially amp up testing, take protocols to clean things more and recuperate from the first three weeks.

Also see: What's the latest with the football season?

Oct. 3: at Vanderbilt

Vandy is usually in October at some point, and it would make sense to have one of the longer trips early.

Oct. 10: vs. Auburn

Despite being in the SEC West, Auburn is closer (320 miles) to South Carolina than four SEC East schools: Florida (354 miles), Kentucky (433), Vanderbilt (445) and Missouri (873).

That means the Gamecocks would be playing them, and doing it at home after traveling to the plains for their last matchup in 2014.

Oct. 17: Bye week

Full disclosure, the author of this piece is getting married this day and planned this day around the football schedule so his family and friends won't be conflicted. If the powers that be from South Carolina or the SEC are reading this, here's one vote for keeping the same bye weeks.

Oct. 24: at Alabama

It may not be great for South Carolina, having to play the Tide in back to back years but Tuscaloosa is close and it would cut back on travel. Plus, the last time South Carolina beat Alabama came after a bye week and a game against Auburn.

Oct. 31: vs. Tennessee

This schedule doesn't disrupt the Tennessee-Alabama game (which was originally scheduled for Oct. 24 this year) and gives South Carolina the typical Halloween-week game with the Vols.

Nov. 7: Bye week

Also see: Looking at how the JUCO players can impact next season

Nov. 14: at LSU

The problem with scheduling the closest opponents is LSU still makes the cut for South Carolina. The defending national champs were scheduled to host South Carolina on Nov. 14 this year and it wouldn't hurt to keep it the same.

Nov. 21: at Florida

Florida has to fall in at some point, and why not have the Gators near the end of the year? The Gators are one of South Carolina's bigger SEC rivals, so it would make sense to have them as one of the final games to end the year.

Nov. 28: vs. Mississippi State

The Bulldogs are only 503 miles away, a little bit less than seven and a half hours, which means they're one of the 10 closest to South Carolina. The Gamecocks went to Starkville—one of the more unique venues in the SEC—in Will Muschamp's first season and weren't due to play the Bulldogs again until 2023. This would bump that up to 2020.