Conferences Settling on 2020 Schedules

According to Brett McMurphy of Watchstadium.com, the ACC is leaning toward playing 10 conference games plus 1 non-conference game. Currently the ACC teams have eight conference games and four non-conference matchups on their schedule.

Six ACC schools have Notre Dame on their schedule. Should the Fighting Irish add four more ACC matchups, their games would count for conference records.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford said earlier in the summer that the league would work with Notre Dame to help the Irish schedule as many games as possible. Notre Dame is a member of the ACC in most sports but remains independent of a conference in football.

Essentially, Notre Dame appears to be invited into the ACC for the 2020 football season and will have their games counted in the conference standings.

With a 10-game scheduling model, teams like Clemson who are already playing Notre Dame and eight conference opponents would likely add one more ACC opponent and still be able to compete in one non-conference matchup. The Tigers would likely choose to keep its rivalry game with South Carolina.

The Pac-12 has already decided it will only play conference games and currently each member of the conference has nine conference games scheduled. McMurphy reported that there is a proposal that will increase each school's schedule to 10 games.

These talks are significant to the Crimson Tide and the SEC because the conference is still considering its options for the 2020 season. Currently all the member schools play eight conference games and four non-conference matchups (Alabama and Texas A&M are down to three non-conference games due to the Pac-12's decisions).

If the trend throughout the nation is to play 10 conference games the Crimson Tide could see two additional SEC East opponents added to the 2020 schedule. The speculation is that everyone would add the next two opposite division rotating teams to its schedule. For the Crimson Tide that would mean a trip to The Swamp to play Florida, and a home game with Vanderbilt.