Report: SEC coaches had ‘contentious’ call over new schedule

The SEC has yet to officially announce whether or not football will be played this fall, but all signs point to the season proceeding. Coaches in the conference must be pleased about that, though the schedule is apparently another story.

With the SEC set to play a conference-only schedule if there is fall football, some schools feel they unfairly ended up with more difficult schedules than their rivals. Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports reports that coaches became “contentious” on a call Thursday and were upset with how the two additional conference opponents for each team were chosen.

Sources: The SEC coaches call on Thursday became contentious. At least five SEC coaches expressed frustration over the lack of transparency regarding the inability to produce a "formula" for how the two additional league opponents were chosen.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 14, 2020

The SEC has two divisions — East and West — within its conference. In a normal year, every SEC school plays the six other teams in its division, two non-divisional opponents and four non-conference games. This year, each school will face the six teams in its division and four non-divisional opponents.

Obviously, some teams are going to have tougher schedules than others. That happens every year, but SEC coaches feel conference officials should have been more transparent with how the additional two non-divisional opponents were chosen.

Of course, many will rightly point out that producing a “formula” for coming up with non-divisional opponents should be low on the SEC’s list of offseason priorities. We know from the comments many Big Ten coaches made publicly that they would love to trade places with their SEC counterparts and still have a shot at playing a fall season.