Last month’s announcement that the SEC members would play 10 conference games and be prohibited from playing any non-conference games for the 2020 season left a lot of details up in the air, but now the full schedule has been revealed. In comparison with the previously planned 12-game schedule, the Dawgs drop two games against FCS/Group-of-5 cupcakes and replace two non-conference ACC opponents with two Western-Division conference teams. With the 2020 SEC football schedule now locking in opponents and dates, the COVID-adjusted schedule is shown for what it really is: exactly what fans have been wanting for years!

While there had admittedly been some previous excitement about playing "at least they’re Power 5" Virginia in Atlanta and "are they still Power 5" Georgia Tech in Athens, this fan’s sense of the matter is that mostly we were glad we weren’t stuck with playing FOUR cupcake games again. (And, yes, I’m counting Tech as a cupcake for Paul Johnson’s final 2018 season. Reminder: they’ve only won 14 games since 1964 and a good portion of those have been vacated by the NCAA.) Playing in Atlanta frequently certainly has its merits, but with the Benz now the home of the SEC Championship and with the regularity at which CFP games will be played there, UGA’s goal should be playing in ATL in the post-season and spending as many regular-season days in Sanford Stadium playing conference-mates as possible.

So while not as many of us will be spending Saturdays in the Classic City as we’d like this year, let’s all hope that McGarity and the powers-that-be will make this a turning point regarding the quality of future schedules. More home-and-homes like the recent one against Notre Dame are welcome, but we shouldn't go 7+ years between playing other members of our own conference anymore. And whatever else happens, we’ve all gotten another good reminder that it could always be worse: if things had gone differently any one us might have been a B1G or a Pac-12 fan. There but for the Grace of God.

Stay safe out there, people.