The SEC’s foray into postponing games this weekend due to COVID-19 outbreaks among multiple teams now is leading the conference to adjusting its members’ schedules well beyond the next 24 hours.
Late Friday evening, the SEC announced that it would move the Kentucky at Missouri game scheduled for Halloween up a week to Oct. 24; the Georgia at Kentucky game has been flipped into that Halloween slot on the schedule.
South Carolina’s scheduled trip next weekend to LSU also has been mildly adjusted, with kickoff for that game now set for 7 p.m. ET; it had been set for a 4 p.m. kick on SEC Network.
Missouri at Florida now has been set for Oct. 31, rather than Oct. 24, with a 7:30 p.m. kick in The Swamp.
Already this week, after the Florida Gators’ football program endured a COVID-19 outbreak that included 19 Gators’ players affected and at least two assistant coaches, per Florida head coach Dan Mullen, the SEC rescheduled the annual Florida-LSU rivalry game from Saturday until Dec. 12, a week before the SEC’s scheduled conference championship battle.
Additionally, after Vanderbilt nearly encountered a roster too depleted to host South Carolina last weekend with only 56 active players due to COVID-19 protocols and multiple player opt-outs, the league moved the Commodores’ trip to Missouri to that same Dec. 12 date.
The SEC, which started its 10-game, conference-only season Sept. 26, joined other leagues and major programs forced to adjust game dates, start times and more due to COVID-19, as well as last weekend’s Hurricane Delta that saw LSU’s home game against Missouri moved to Columbia.
The ACC has seen Notre Dame, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech and others forced to alter schedules and likewise move games into the second weekend of December due to COVID-19 outbreaks. The Fighting Irish had almost 40 players in quarantine with positive tests or contact tracing protocols in late September, forcing their scheduled game against Wake Forest to be moved into December.
