BYU, SEC still working on 2020 non-conference games

BYU’s 2020 football schedule — and all of college football, for that matter — is still up in the air, but comments Monday from BYU AD Tom Holmoe and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey show that at least two SEC games for BYU are still on the table.

BYU has a scheduled game with Missouri for October 10 and reports have surfaced of a “strong possibility” that BYU-Alabama open their season against each other.

Greg Sankey appeared on Monday’s episode of “The Dan Patrick Show” and discussed many topics, one being SEC non-conference scheduling. Although the SEC is still following data around COVID, Sankey said that the SEC’s preference is still to play non-conference games.

“We’ve been working for months on a (Power 5) protocol to be a common platform so we could know that the guys lined up on the other side of the football have been tested, have gone through screening and are healthy just like our guys on our side of the football,” Sankey said. “I think Georgia Tech can hop on a bus, drive up to Athens, Georgia and play a football game as well as Georgia can get on a plane and fly to Tuscaloosa, (Alabama) and play a football game.”

Sankey went on to say that they are working closely with the Big 12 and ACC to have similar protocols so the conferences can play games against each other.

“My inclination is not to just run off and play our own football,” Sankey said. “I think our connections (with the ACC and Big 12) are important. Yet, some of that may be dictated by the decisions around COVID and the different circumstances. We’ll try to be patient.”

Holmoe was asked Monday morning on BYU SportsNation about the reported BYU-Alabama matchup; without explicitly acknowledging the game, he said that “there have been a lot of communications, a lot of conversations with people” about filling scheduling holes.

Late July had initially been the deadline many thought the SEC would make decisions on the 2020 season, but Sankey acknowledged that deadline may be pushed back.

“I set a timeline based on what I saw in May as factors,” Sankey said. “That timeline is gone. So, we’ll actually go to next week and have a really important check-in point, but I’m now not of the opinion that I have to make a decision then, which that will be news right there. ‘Wow, they may not make a decision,’ but this whole thing is fluid, so the ability to make sure we’re treating people well, supporting their health and safety, that’s a guide, that’s right where you and I started today. We’ll convene over the next couple of weeks and then we’ll go potentially into the next stage of practice.”

You can watch Sankey’s and Holmoe’s Monday interviews below.