SEC will play 10-game conference-only schedule; Mississippi State-NC State game is off

A day after the ACC announced a conference-only schedule that also left open the door for non-conference games against SEC foes, the SEC went ahead and shut it. The SEC has decided to play a 10-game league-only schedule with no non-conference games, and so the Mississippi State-NC State matchup is officially toast.

This leaves the ACC with another decision to make, as its 10+1 model was put in place almost entirely to keep existing SEC-ACC matchups on the table. So now does the ACC allow its schools to hunt for another game, or do they simply nix that 11th contest across the board? The latter move would be the simplest.

It would also match what we know about the other leagues. The Big Ten and Pac-12 haven’t announced their schedule structures, but both have announced they will only play conference games. The Pac-12 is expected to go with a 10-game schedule; ditto the Big Ten.

The Big 12 still hasn’t made any announcements about its schedule, though a lot of decisions have been made for that league already. It’s possible they may go with a plus-one model even with the other power conferences out of the picture.