Following three straight uninterrupted weeks, it's been a bleak Monday in SEC country. As of this writing, the state of play looks like this:
-- LSU-Alabama is in jeopardy due to COVID issues at LSU
-- Auburn-Mississippi State has been postponed due to COVID issues at State
-- Texas A&M has paused activities five days ahead of a scheduled visit to Tennessee
-- Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman has tested positive
-- Mark Stoops says Kentucky is having "issues" but did not deem it an outbreak
Auburn-State will move to Dec. 12, the weekend the conference set aside for this very purpose. It will join previously re-scheduled games LSU-Florida and Mizzou-Vanderbilt on that date.
While the folks in the SEC offices do not need my help, there is one glaring issue that must be addressed, and quickly -- what to do about this Saturday's window on CBS.
The SEC on CBS game has been moved back from 3:30 to 6 p.m. ET to accommodate the network's coverage of The Masters. This is to be "A Saturday Unlike Any Other," a fusing of Southern traditions never before imagined -- GameDay broadcasting onsite from Augusta National in the morning, The Masters all afternoon, followed by Alabama at LSU in the evening.
Given the tournament's massive viewership (the 2019 final round drew 10.8 million sets of eyeballs, the most-watched golf broadcast since the 2018 Masters final round), this Saturday's game could top the 9.61 million that tuned in to Alabama's 41-24 win over Georgia for the most-watched game of the SEC season to date.
It would be a massive missed opportunity, both for the SEC and CBS, to replace Alabama at LSU with, say, Arkansas at Florida.
In a thinking-outside-the-box year, it's time for an outside-the-box solution. The SEC should move the Iron Bowl to this Saturday, then play Alabama at LSU on Nov. 28.
Such a solution would negate the need to cancel any other games, since LSU's schedule is already spoken for on COVID Saturday of Dec. 12. Auburn-Mississippi State could remain on Dec. 12 as scheduled, thereby giving both LSU and Mississippi State close to two weeks to recover before scheduled games against Arkansas and Georgia, respectively, on Nov. 21.
The idea may be too radical, too soon to pull off. The Iron Bowl is just one day a year, one the entire state of Alabama spends the other 364 either preparing for or recovering from. Moving it up two weeks on just five days' notice is realistically unfeasible.
But there's no doubt Alabama and Auburn could make it happen. Even with new offensive coordinators on each side, Bama knows Auburn and Auburn knows Bama.
This Saturday night is one of the most important windows of the entire SEC year. Moving the Iron Bowl might be the only way to make sure a once-a-century opportunity doesn't slip away -- and if it's going to happen, it needs to happen soon.