“It took a pandemic, but they may get their wish.”

Speaking of today’s virtual meeting, SI.com’s Ross Dellenger has some information on where the SEC may be at with regard to its scheduling format for this season:

The SEC is moving closer to an agreement on a conference-only schedule of 10 games, multiple sources told Sports Illustrated. During a virtual meeting on Wednesday, a majority of athletic directors approved the idea of an SEC-only, 10-game schedule. However, the schedule must be ratified by league presidents. SEC presidents are expected to meet virtually Thursday to seriously discuss the matter. It is unclear if they will vote then or delay a decision until next week. The NCAA Board of Governors is scheduled to meet Tuesday in what could be a momentous event for the 2020–21 college athletic season. Officials there could postpone or cancel fall championships, eliminating year-ending championships for sports such as FCS football, volleyball and soccer, or moving those to the spring…

A conference-only schedule, however, has emerged as a potential best option, even though all league administrators are not necessarily in agreement. A conference-only slate allows for flexibility and for all games to feature a uniform testing protocol. The number of games, 10, is seen by many in college football as a potential minimum requirement to compete in the College Football Playoff this year, though that number is likely to fluctuate according to the impacts of the virus.

That would, of course, wipe out the cross-conference rivalry games that several SEC East teams play, not to mention a slew of guarantee cupcake games.

Sankey’s response to the story isn’t exactly the strongest of denials.

Between this and the ACC’s move yesterday, it looks like we’re moving into the “every conference for itself” phase of the 2020 preseason.  Good times.

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Shots fired: The ACC makes its scheduling move.

And it’s gonna leave a mark.

The ACC board of directors voted Wednesday to proceed with an 11-game football season that begins the weekend of Sept. 12 — and includes FBS independent Notre Dame playing a full league schedule — but only if public health guidance allows.

All ACC schools and Notre Dame will play 10 conference games plus one nonconference game of their choosing, and the Fighting Irish will be eligible for the ACC championship game. There will be no divisions for this season only.

The nonconference game must take place in the home state of the ACC institution, and all nonconference opponents must have met the medical protocol requirements as agreed upon by the ACC during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 11 games will be played over at least 13 weeks, with two built-in bye weeks. The ACC championship game will be played in Charlotte, North Carolina, on either Dec. 12 or Dec. 19 and will feature the top two teams with the highest conference winning percentages.

From our selfish standpoint, the first casualty was obvious.

The question left, of course, is where that leaves the Georgia-Georgia Tech game.  It doesn’t sound like McGarity knows the answer to that any more than we do right now.  Today’s virtual meeting with Sankey and the conference ADs may resolve that.