A staggering amount of money was lost when the SEC decided to play only conference games this upcoming football season.
The SEC announced Thursday that the conference would only play 10 league games during the ongoing coronavirus. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
For their non-conference Group of Five opponents, it was a very expensive decision.
NEWS | @SEC establishes new football start date of September 26 and Conference-only football competition.https://t.co/UhFFOfQ2lK
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) July 30, 2020
A crafty Reddit user combed through every single non-conference game against Group of Five teams, and the total losses come to $31,825,000 for the 14 canceled games against G5 squads.
If you count canceled games against FCS teams, it’s believed the total number is somewhere around $38 million.
Before the SEC canceled their non-conference schedule, the 14 teams still had guarantee-games with G5 schools totaling $31,825,000. from CFB
First off, major props to this dude for putting that list together. That’s a hell of a lot of research and calculating.
Secondly, these numbers are always staggering to me. Smaller schools depend on money games to fund a large chunk of their football teams.
View this post on Instagram
We saw the same thing when the Big 10 went conference-only during the coronavirus pandemic. All the MAC teams and other G5 opponents took a huge financial hit.
Unfortunately, it’s just the reality of the situation. We’re in a crazy time dealing with coronavirus, and that means tough decisions have to be made.
When the Power Five decides to pack it in, it’s the G5 that takes the biggest hit. They depend on those non-conference matchups, and they’re gone for the most part this season.
View this post on Instagram
Hopefully, everything is back to normal in 2021. If not, then we have much bigger problems on our hands than college football.