The SEC’s decision leaves Georgia Tech without a Georgia game

For Tech, the implications are unclear because college football’s plans to play a season against the coronavirus pandemic appear to be being worked out on a daily basis. The SEC’s decision received more attention Wednesday evening after the ACC appeared to be encumbering the SEC by approving its 10-game schedule model plus a non-conference game. The format left room for the league’s four teams with SEC rivals Clemson, South Carolina, Florida, Florida, Louisville, Kentucky and Tech to continue their series this year.

But the SEC, which was apparently geared toward a conference schedule long before the ACC maneuver, stayed on course.

“While it is certainly disappointing for our student athletes, coaches, and fans that we won’t have an annual Georgia rivalry soccer game this year, I also understand and respect the SEC’s decision,” said Todd Stansbury, Tech’s sports director, in one Explanation . “We hope to finalize our non-conference opponent for the 2020 season in the near future and are very much looking forward to meeting Georgia again in 2021.”

“I am disappointed that our players will not have the opportunity to play our in-state rivalry game this season, but will respect the SEC’s decision,” coach Geoff Collins said in a statement.

It is of course also possible that the season is not played at all. The plans that put together conferences are nothing more than plans. The season could be canceled in the coming weeks if the teams start training in the pre-season and find that the pandemic cannot be prevented from spreading on campus as well as in locker rooms and practice fields.

Tech has planned two more home games outside the conference for the upcoming season – Central Florida and Gardner-Webb. The jackets could choose to play one of the two games and either cancel or try to move the other game to another year, the former option possibly being costly.

With 10 planned games against ACC opponents, including Notre Dame, who will play as a full league member this year, Tech could choose a less competitive opponent on FCS Gardner-Webb. (The Knights ended last season 10-3 and are considered the top 25 opponents of the previous season.)

Or it is possible that Stansbury and Collins try to get out of both the UCF and Gardner Webb games and play against an opponent like Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Mercer or Kennesaw State. Or the ACC could follow the example of the SEC and choose not to play non-conference games, although Stansbury’s testimony showed no such intention.

Georgia Southern AD Jared Benko, whose team is about to face Ole Miss, is waiting for the Sun Belt Conference to decide how to structure the season.

“I would like to play Georgia Tech and Georgia every year,” Benko told the AJC. “Especially Georgia Tech, who was in Atlanta because the last time we played there (2016), we had a huge amount. We have a lot of fans up there. We think it would be a great game. “

As for the 10 ACC games Tech will play, the conference strength of the jackets is harder than that of most others, since the jackets are said to play both Clemson and Notre Dame, which would be almost the two best choices to win the ACC most unusual season. The jackets are one of six that both the Tigers and Fighting Irish play, even though they are both at home.

The Jackets shun North Carolina, a likely top-25 team in the pre-season that quarterback Sam Howell is returning, and Virginia Tech, who were 8: 5 last season and returned an experienced squad. When the season is played, it is the first time since 1979 that the jackets have stopped playing the tar heels.

Boston College has the toughest schedule in the league, averaged over the opponent’s Sagarin rating at the end of last season. The Eagles’ 10 ACC opponents had an average rating of 49.1, including Clemson, Notre Dame, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech.

Wake Forest is second with 49.8. The remaining 13 are clumped between 55.8 and 61.5. Tech is fifth at 56.4.

The schedule will certainly get easier if Georgia isn’t there.

“I will miss it,” said Anderson. “I’ll do it for sure.”