Alabama’s season opener against Southern California was wiped out Friday as the Pac 12 announced that it will eliminate its non-conference schedules for football and other fall sports due to health and safety concerns stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The decision came after the Big Ten announced its move to a conference-only schedule Thursday. According to a report from Sports Illustrated, SEC athletic directors will meet Monday in Birmingham to discuss the conference’s fall-sports scheduling. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey released a statement Thursday, stating the conference plans on taking a patient approach to future scheduling decisions.
“The Southeastern Conference will continue to meet regularly with our campus leaders in the coming weeks, guided by medical advisors, to make the important decisions necessary to determine the best path forward related to the SEC fall sports,” Sankey said in the statement. “We recognize the challenges ahead and know the well-being of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans must remain at the forefront of those decisions.”
Alabama was scheduled to open its season against Southern California on Sept. 5 inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Assuming the SEC does not eliminate non-conference games, the Crimson Tide could find an alternative opponent for that date.
“As I’ve said before, USC AD Mike Bohn and I had multiple conversations over the last several months, and we were both planning on playing the football game on September 5 in Arlington,” Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said in a statement. “With the Pac-12’s decision to move to a conference-only schedule, we will do our best to adjust. What that looks like is to be determined.”
In May, BamaInsider confirmed through a source that Alabama held talks with TCU as a possible replacement in the event Southern California was unable to play. TCU has also seen its season opener eliminated as it was scheduled to play at California in Berkeley, Calif. on Sept. 5.
Alabama also has non-conference home games scheduled against Georgia State (Sept. 12), Kent State (Sept. 26) and Tennessee-Martin (Nov. 14). Georgia State plays in the Sun Belt Conference while Kent State is part of the Mid-American Conference and FCS foe Tennessee-Martin is part of the Ohio Valley Conference. All three of those conferences have yet to announce an alteration of plans for the coming season.
In the event the SEC does move to a conference-only schedule, it is unknown how that switch would affect the start date of its college football season or whether the conference would add additional conference games to make up for the non-conference games lost. Alabama’s first scheduled conference game is a home meeting against Georgia on Sept. 19.
