MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — While the Big Ten and Pac-12 already made their decisions on nonconference football games, the Big 12, SEC and ACC may be conceiving a plan to work together before any make a definitive decision.
The plan may have a major impact on West Virginia’s first game of the season, currently set in Atlanta against Florida State in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic.
The classic is comprised of three games this season, including WVU vs. FSU, Georgia vs. Virginia and Auburn vs. North Carolina, all at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. With nonconference games in doubt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Peach Bowl CEO and President Gary Stokan believes there may be a way for the Mountaineers to play not Florida State, but Virginia if the Big 12, ACC and SEC decide to play a “plus-one” game on top of a conference-only slate.
All three conferences recently said a decision is not expected until the end of July on what they will do with the nonconference football schedules, but that hasn’t kept representatives of the kickoff classic from coming up with alternative plans.
“I’m an optimist and tried to come up with a scenario that was a win-win-win, and in this case, knowing if the Big 12, ACC or SEC when conference-only, we wouldn’t have the luxury of putting on any of the games,” Stokan said. “I wanted to project an opportunity with also knowing all four [athletic directors] in the ACC and SEC wanting to play their rivalry games.”
If schools are allowed one extra game outside of the conference schedule, the ACC and SEC will likely try to play traditional rivalry games — Kentucky/Louisville, Clemson/South Carolina, Georgia/Georgia Tech and Florida/Florida State.
If this scenario happens, Florida State and Georgia will be out of the CFA Kickoff Classic, leaving Virginia and WVU out of their respective games.
The result? Why not just have the Cavaliers and Mountaineers play each other in a primetime Labor Day game on ESPN?
“With both of those schools being Power 5 and both being contracted with us and available, why not put West Virginia and Virginia together?” Stokan said. “There are already a lot of games between the Big 12, ACC and SEC — Texas/LSU, Oklahoma/Tennessee, Vanderbilt/Kansas State, Boston College/Kansas, so a lot of those games between these conferences already exist.
“Talking with a lot of leaders in these conferences, it seems they want to play a full (conference) schedule, knowing if they want to give themselves some flexibility if there are cancellations and with similar (COVID-19) testing models, that they’d go with a plus-one model, if not a plus-two.”
Several scenarios are still on the table, including adding teams that were not supposed to play in the 2020 CFA Kickoff Classic, according to Stokan.
It should be noted if this scenario becomes a reality and the Big 12, ACC and SEC choose to play a plus-one, WVU’s home game against Eastern Kentucky would be canceled if WVU decides to play in the CFA Kickoff Classic. The Mountaineers already lost a home game against Maryland when the Big Ten announced it was canceling all nonconference games.
However, the Mountaineers may not have much say in the matter yet again. NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a previous report that the future of FCS football, which is the level Eastern Kentucky plays, could also be decided by the end of July.
Stokan still believes WVU would have a tough time passing up the opportunity to play a Power 5 program like Virginia in an opening weekend showcase.
“I can’t imagine a West Virginia wouldn’t want to play a Virginia because they’re a Power 5 and both are already contracted to play in Atlanta,” Stokan said. “I don’t know if it’s as much taking a home game away since they’re already scheduled to play in Atlanta against an FBS Power 5 program from the ACC. I don’t think there’s much of a transition for West Virginia to make.”
Because it is a contracted game, it could be played Sept. 5 — the current take for WVU vs. FSU — or Sept. 7, but Stokan said the Labor Day time slot is typically one of the most watched all college football season.
The Mountaineers are 10-12-1 all-time against the Cavaliers, but the two have played just once since 1985. Virginia beat WVU 48-22 in the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, N.C.
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