The Southwestern Athletic Conference’s postponement of football until the spring is having a small ripple effect on a couple of Southeastern Conference teams.
SEC members Mississippi State and Auburn have lost non-conference games to SWAC foes — MSU vs. Alabama A&M on Nov. 21 and Auburn vs. Alcorn State on Sept. 5.
Auburn was set to pay Alcorn State $475,000 for the game.
About 50 FCS-FBS “buy” games have been scrapped, according to the Associated Press.
MSU has at least a second non-league contest that appears in serious jeopardy since New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has asked the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University to suspend football and other contact sports this fall.
This request comes after an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in people aged between 20-39 in the state.
Mississippi State is set to open the 2020 football season against the University of New Mexico on Sept. 5 in Starkville.
Multiple conferences have already postponed their seasons to the spring, including the Ivy League, Patriot League, MEAC, A-10 and CAA.
The Bulldogs have already lost their game against A&M after the SWAC postponed all of its fall sports to the spring in a move announced earlier this week.
It’s possible that the Bulldogs won’t need to find two more opponents since the SEC hasn’t made any decisions about how to proceed with the season during this global pandemic. The SEC has said it will wait until the end of July to make any possible changes.
If the conference deems that the regular 12-game schedule cannot be played as planned, it could move to a shortened conference-only or conference plus-one or -two format with a delayed start.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to the cancellation or postponement of more than 300 Division I games so far, and how much, if any, college football is played hinges on whether the surging number of virus cases can be tamped down.
