Rick Patrick
ECB Publishing, Inc.
There was a huge sigh of relief heard throughout the southeastern U.S. and along the eastern seaboard recently when both the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) released football schedules for the two conferences. The teams in each conference will play primarily other conference teams. Those teams in the ACC will each play one non-conference opponent each. The SEC teams will only play other SEC teams.
Florida State University (FSU) will begin their football season on Saturday, Sept. 12, at home against Georgia Tech. The Seminoles will play an 11-game season with two open dates. The sole non-conference game will be against Jacksonville State, on Saturday, Oct 3. The Seminoles will also play Notre Dame University on Saturday, Oct. 10, in South Bend, Ind. Although, in the past, Notre Dame has been an independent in terms of football, they have joined the ACC in other sports. Notre Dame will be playing a full ACC schedule in football this season. So far, there has not been an announcement made in terms of the number of fans that will be allowed in Doak Campbell Stadium, in Tallahassee.
The University of Florida Gators will begin their season a little later on the road in Oxford, Miss. when they play Ole Miss on Saturday, Sept. 26. The Gators' home opener will take place a week later when they play the Gamecocks of the University of South Carolina on Saturday, Oct. 3, in “The Swamp.” The annual Georgia/Florida game is set to take place in its traditional location of Jacksonville, Fla. on Saturday, Nov. 11.
The University of Florida has not set any guidelines in terms of capacity at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The conference has generally left that decision up to the individual schools. So far, all the schools are drastically reducing the number of fans allowed into their stadiums. The number of fans that will be allowed in will be approximately 20 to 30 percent of normal capacity. The normal capacity of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, in Gainesville, is 88,548 fans. If they limit that to 30 percent of capacity, approximately 26,000 fans will be able to see the Gators play each week. The SEC has ruled that all fans will be required to wear face coverings.
The future of the 2020 college football season became very uncertain recently when both the Big 10 and PAC 12 conferences either delayed or cancelled their seasons. The Big 12 conference has also announced that they would be playing, beginning Saturday, Sept. 26.