During the spring, I was fairly sure that college football would be out of the question in 2020, and started pondering weekends with no SEC games featuring Texas A&M. For better or worse, probably worse, most major conference teams will apparently try to play games in a limited, restricted format. We'll see how things pan out.
In the SEC, the limited format meant playing a ten-game schedule against only SEC opponents. For Texas A&M, this meant relinquishing four potentially-winnable games against Abilene Christian, North Texas, Colorado and Fresno State, and adding two probable-loss SEC games against Florida (home) and Tennessee (road). It's easy to imagine the Aggies finishing with a mediocre 5-5 record, considering Alabama, LSU, and Auburn are still on the schedule.
A&M opens with the easiest game on the schedule, at home against Vanderbilt (SEC Network 6:30 PM). Vanderbilt is a 30.5 point underdog, and College Football News predicts A&M will coast to a 38-13 victory. Aggies need to enjoy success while they can.
Other SEC games on Saturday feature mostly mismatches:
- Florida (14.5 point favorite) at Ole Miss 11:00 AM ESPN. Florida 30-13
- Kentucky at Auburn (7.5 point favorite) 11:00 AM SEC. Auburn 23-17
- Mississippi State at LSU (16.5 point favorite) 2:30 PM CBS. LSU 34-23
- Georgia (26 point favorite) at Arkansas 3:00 PM SEC. Georgia 45-16
- Alabama (27 point favorite) at Missouri 6:00 PM ESPN. Tide 41-13
- Tennessee (3 point favorite) at South Carolina 6:30 PM SEC. SC 24-23
Score predictions from COLLEGE FOOTBALL NEWS will be added when available.
Update 11:35 PM Saturday 26 September: Watched nearly all of A&M's opening day struggle against Vanderbilt. The Aggies won 17-12 with an unimpressive offensive performance, and made enough blunders to keep Vanderbilt in the game (lost fumbles, penalties, and a safety). It's hard for me to see Texas A&M winning more than four games if this mediocrity continues. Pencil in the trip to Alabama as an ass-whipping in Game 2.
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