The Florida Gators’ two new SEC opponents will deliver juicy story lines, if nothing else.
UF learned Friday that it will host Arkansas and travel to Texas A&M this season in a revised schedule, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Arkansas game sets up an intriguing matchup: former starting quarterback Feleipe Franks transferred from UF to Arkansas in the offseason.
The Aggies are equally interesting, setting up another Jimbo Fisher-UF matchup. At Florida State, Fisher went 7-1 against the Gators, including a 38-22 victory in 2017 that ended up being Fisher’s final game as Seminoles head coach.
The Gators’ other eight opponents were previously set: Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, LSU, Mississippi, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Missouri.
Game dates are expected to be announced next week. The SEC plans to start competition on Sept. 26. UF athletic director Scott Stricklin said last week that he expects the Gators’ annual rivalry game against Georgia to remain on Oct. 31 at Jacksonville’s TIAA Bank Field.
The league announced last week that it would only play conference games. That eliminated UF’s scheduled games against Eastern Washington, South Alabama, New Mexico State and, most importantly, Florida State. Unless the teams meet in a bowl game or things change, this will be the first year since 1957 that the Gators and Seminoles have not played.
Also Friday, the SEC announced some of its medical protocols related to the coronavirus pandemic.
The conference is using a third party for centralized testing that will occur at least twice a week in football — six days and three days before games. The league is also exploring a third, rapid test closer to kickoff.
All coaches, staff and players not in action must wear masks on the sidelines and physical distance themselves from others as much as much as possible. Every school will also have a designated person to oversee compliance of these rules and protocols.
Considerations for calling off a game, or games, include the inability to isolate new cases or quarantine high-risk contacts, a lack of strong testing, local or campus-wide positivity rates that are “considered unsafe by local public health officials,” inadequate contact tracing and a determination by health officials that hospitals can no longer accommodate a potential surge in COVID-19 cases.