Hunter Yurachek and Sam Pittman can’t say anything publicly but the Southeastern Conference just stuck it to Arkansas in the added opponents for the 2020 football season.
In the process, the SEC made it pretty clear the schools they bow down to and the ones they probably would just as soon leave the league in the next round of conference shuffle.
The Razorbacks now get to play No. 4 Georgia in Fayetteville and go to No. 8 Florida. Out of 10 all-SEC games, 60% of those games will be against teams ranked in the Top 13 in the country in preseason polls.
“We now own the most challenging schedule in the history of college football,” was what Yurachek said in a press release late Friday afternoon.
That may or may not be true, but it’s hard to think of anybody playing one tougher.
Pittman said about the only thing he can say.
“The SEC is the best and that’s where Arkansas belongs … with the best,” Pittman said in a release. “We’ve got an incredible opportunity ahead of us as a program.”
Maybe the only other school that can complain as loudly is Missouri, who gets to play Alabama and LSU. The Tigers do get to play in the East, though, which means they get to play Vanderbilt every year.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s comment was hilarious.
“We made every effort to create a schedule that is as competitive as possible,” he said in a press release.
That’s either incompetence or lying … take your pick.
There was no details of the thought process involved in how they came up with “competitive as possible” when the league matched the worst teams in each division with the top of the other side in a year that’s already kicked sideways.
The only possible storylines in the matchups are having Pittman face the team where he coached the last four years in the Bulldogs while projected starting quarterback Feleipe Franks will return to Gainesville against the Gators.
As usual, the league’s bias in favor of the teams at the top gave Alabama games against Missouri and Kentucky while defending national champion LSU picks up Missouri and Vanderbilt.
Maybe as much as the bias towards the teams at the top is the league sticking it to the guys struggling.
It does let Sankey and the guys at the mother ship in Birmingham not worry about those annoying calls from Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge, Athens or Gainesville.
They made it pretty clear they really don’t care about the ones from Fayetteville.
The dates will be announced later.
Here is the complete list of additional games for everybody in the SEC:
2020 SEC NON-DIVISIONAL OPPONENTS
ALABAMA
Previously scheduled: vs. Georgia, at Tennessee
Added opponents: vs. Kentucky, at Missouri
ARKANSAS
Previously scheduled: vs. Tennessee, at Missouri
Added opponents: vs. Georgia, at Florida
AUBURN
Previously scheduled: vs. Kentucky, at Georgia
Added opponents: vs. Tennessee, at South Carolina
FLORIDA
Previously scheduled: vs. LSU, at Ole Miss
Added opponents: vs. Arkansas, at Texas A&M
GEORGIA
Previously scheduled: vs. Auburn, at Alabama
Added opponents: vs. Mississippi State, at Arkansas
KENTUCKY
Previously scheduled: vs. Mississippi State, at Auburn
Added opponents: vs. Ole Miss, at Alabama
LSU
Previously scheduled: vs. South Carolina, at Florida
Added opponents: vs. Missouri, at Vanderbilt
OLE MISS
Previously scheduled: vs. Florida, at Vanderbilt
Added opponents: vs. South Carolina, at Kentucky
MISSISSIPPI STATE
Previously scheduled: vs. Missouri, at Kentucky
Added opponents: vs. Vanderbilt, at Georgia
MISSOURI
Previously scheduled: vs. Arkansas, at Mississippi State
Added opponents: vs. Alabama, at LSU
SOUTH CAROLINA
Previously scheduled: vs. Texas A&M, at LSU
Added opponents: vs. Auburn, at Ole Miss
TENNESSEE
Previously scheduled: vs. Alabama, at Arkansas
Added opponents: vs. Texas A&M, at Auburn
TEXAS A&M
Previously scheduled: vs. Vanderbilt, at South Carolina
Added opponents: vs. Florida, at Tennessee
VANDERBILT
Previously scheduled: vs. Ole Miss, at Texas A&M
Added opponents: vs. LSU, at Mississippi State
