College Football Schedules by Conference

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Photo credit Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

College football's positioning is about as precarious as it has ever been. A multi-billion dollar industry that drives television revenue, athletic department budgets and more desperately needs to be played, lest the entire landscape of college athletics be inalterably changed. The other side of that, however, is asking 18- to 22-year-old student-athletes who you don't pay, but also drive all that revenue, to take the risk of COVID-19 without any set standards or protocols of protection.

It's wreaking havoc, to say the least, and conferences have decided to each do their own thing in figuring out how to play in 2020. From UConn's standpoint, once again an independent, six of the scheduled 12 games have already been cancelled, and the season is very much in doubt. There are a couple of chances to potentially pick up some Power Five opponents, but it's going to be a battle with all the other Group of Five schools.

Conference-by-conference, here is how everyone is scheduling in 2020:

ACC: The Atlantic Coast Conference came out last week and announced an 11-game season consisting of 10 league games, plus one non-conference contest. As the first Power 5 conference to announce its plans, it put the ball firmly in the SEC's court to keep regional rivalries intact. In short, the league wanted Clemson-South Carolina, Georgia Tech-Georgia, Louisville-Kentucky and Florida State-Florida. The SEC didn't comply (more on that in a bit), but the one non-conference game remains.

The added twist to the ACC, however, is the temporary addition of Notre Dame as a football school. The Irish already play a partial ACC schedule as is, but given their schedule would have been decimated, the conference stepped in to help. Notre Dame will play the 10-game league schedule and be eligible for the ACC Championship Game in December, which for 2020 only will be between teams with the two best records, as opposed to two division winners. While everyone knows their opponents, we're waiting on official dates for games, scheduled to begin in early September.

Big Ten: The only Power 5 team to not have its schedule released as of August 3, the league is scheduled to have a meeting on the 4th, but that could be thrown off given recent events at Rutgers and elsewhere. The Scarlet Knights had to pause workouts shortly after starting on June 15, then placed the entire team under isolation on July 25 when six players tested positive. Now news broke Monday that as many as 28 players, plus multiple staff members, have tested positive for COVID-19. This comes after Northwestern paused its workouts on Monday, and three other schools (Ohio State, Michigan State and Maryland) have already stopped workouts earlier this summer.

The effect this will have on the rest of the Big Ten's official schedule remains unreleased, but the league was the first to announce, all the way back in June, that it would be a conference-only season.

Big 12: The league had been quiet up until Monday night, when they announced a 10-game schedule using the "9+1" format. The smallest Power 5 conference, the Big 12 will play its usual nine-game round-robin slate within the league - so everybody plays each other once - with the one additional non-conference game slated. Where the Big 12 differs from everyone else is with timing. All of the other leagues are starting anywhere from mid-to-late September, which is also when the league announced it expected to start. However, as of right now there are four teams scheduled to play Week Zero on August 29, and none of those games have yet been cancelled or pushed back (though it's expected).

And for those interested, the plan is to still have Oklahoma and Texas play at the Cotton Bowl, despite the Texas State Fair being cancelled due to COVID-19.

Pac-12: Last Friday the Pac-12 officially released its 10-game conference-only schedule starting on September 26, but that's the least of the headlines. A group of Pac-12 players are threatening to opt-out of the season if a list of demands aren't met. Most of them surround protecting the players and ensuring their safety if they are to risk playing. Many of the requests are unrealistic, but many - such as COVID-19 protocols and extended insurance - are more than fair. The actual size of this coalition isn't really known, but if there are enough players, including a couple of stars, then it could lead to landmark changes.

SEC: The SEC will also play a 10-game conference-only schedule, angering some fans in the process (remember, many of the league's biggest rivalries come against ACC schools). However, commissioner Greg Sankey since the very beginning has voiced how different 2020 would be if things didn't change. Starting September 26 the league will duke it out against one another, but it remains to be seen when the finalized schedule will be released. The SEC recently changed its rules to end the "permanent" cross-division opponent for everybody, and now it's back to square one to figure out how to put together the 10-game schedule that will feature six intra-division and four inter-division contests.

Group of Five: Now that all of the Power 5 conference have at least announced their basic plans, everyone else has to figure out what to do. Programs all across the American, Conference-USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt not only had Power 5 opponents on the schedule, but most of their athletic departments rely on those guarantee games for their budgets. Getting $1 million to lose a game 52-0 against [enter big opponent here> is far less painful than losing that $1 million. There are a few programs that don't quite fit that description - think Boise State - but for the vast majority of Group of Five programs and independents, the precious few Power 5 openings will be fought for tooth and nail.

College Football Playoff: What does all of this mean for the College Football Playoff? No one is quite sure. Given the fact that all of these efforts have been made individually, as opposed to everyone coming together with a universal plan, the sport's grand prize is in "wait-and-see" mode. And even when the official dates are released, the committee's job just got infinitely harder. With no Power 5 non-conference games, how is the committee to judge, say, Oregon against Ohio State (who were supposed to play Week 2)? How does a 10-0 Big 12 team compare to a 9-1 SEC team, especially if that lone loss is a close one to an Alabama, LSU or Georgia?