July 30, 2020 – Bradley Charles – Bluegrass Sports Nation
During a Zoom meeting today, the SEC presidents decided to go with a 10-game, conference-only football schedule for SEC programs this fall due to the on-going pandemic. The league also decided to push back the start of the season roughly three weeks with Saturday, Sept. 26 being the league’s new kickoff date. The SEC championship game, which was originally scheduled for Dec. 5, is now scheduled for Dec. 19.
In a written statement, the league said, “The decision to limit competition to conference-only opponents and rescheduling the SEC Championship Game is based on the need for maximum flexibility in making any necessary scheduling adjustments while reacting to developments around the pandemic and continued advice from medical professionals.”
Probably the biggest takeaway from this decision for Kentucky fans is that the Cats will not play Louisville this season. The SEC’s announcement comes a day after the ACC announced that their programs will be able to play one non-conference game against an in-state program.
While BBN would have loved to have seen the 2020 edition of the Governor’s Cup, at least the Cats still have a season under the current plan.
Besides the loss of the Louisville game, the Cats will also not play their previously scheduled games against Eastern Michigan, Kent State, and Eastern Illinois.
UK’s revised 2020 football schedule will be announced at a later date. Until that schedule gets released, there will be debates among fans as to what opponents they would like UK to play, as well as lots of speculation and anticipation as to what the SEC will decide.