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Brett McMurphy of Stadium is reporting that the ACC is expecting to remove any non-conference games from its football schedule for the fall of 2020:
ACC football also expected to play conference-only games, sources told @Stadium. Last month, ACC commish John Swofford told @Stadium if Power 5 schools played conference-only schedules that ACC would assist Notre Dame with as many games as it needed
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 9, 2020
Obviously, this endangers the UCF Knights’ scheduled season opener with the North Carolina Tar Heels at home on Friday, September 4th, and at the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Friday, September 18th, both of which were expected to be key non-conference games on national TV.
Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic pushed back slightly on that:
I'm told any news about the ACC is premature at this point. https://t.co/Hd7pFoOMk1
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) July 9, 2020
Bruce Feldman of The Athletic was a tad more nuanced:
SOURCE: ACC coaches have been told of a conference-only games plan (as @Brett_McMurphy reported). I'm told the coaches have not yet been told it’s definite. ACC’s tentative conference-only football plan as they've discussed would extend to include #NotreDame.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) July 9, 2020
UCF has not yet commented, and no official announcement has been made by the ACC or the American.
It was the Big Ten that got the ball rolling after the Ivy League’s announcement of no fall sports. The Big Ten’s statement:
“[T]he Big Ten Conference announced today that if the Conference is able to participate in fall sports (men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball) based on medical advice, it will move to Conference-only schedules in those sports.”
Read the full statement below:
Big Ten Statement on 2020-21 Fall Season:https://t.co/KLjc4mA47h
— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) July 9, 2020
This is a developing story. It will be updated.