Peach Bowl CEO Pitches West Virginia Football Schedule Change
With all the moving and shaking in the college football world right now, no one really has any idea what a 2020 college football season is going to look like.
And one of the events that could be greatly impacted is the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl Kick Off event in Atlanta, in which three games were going to be played over two weeks: West Virginia-Florida State, Georgia-Virginia and Auburn-North Carolina.
If these games are not played, Peach Bowl CEO Gary Stokan told ESPN he estimates a loss of $100 million in economic impact.
So to salvage the games he’s trying to work somethign out with the schools. It seems possibly no non-conference games will be played this year. Already, the Big Ten and Pac-12 have cancelled non-conference games. But is it possible that every Power 5 conference (or at least the other three) go to a conference slate, plus one non-conference game?
If so, he’d like to see West Virginia possibly play Virginia to salvage at least one of the Chick-Fil-A Kick Off games.
Stokan has tried to play matchmaker. According to ESPN, “If the three decided to adopt a conference games-plus-one nonconference game model, the SEC/ACC rivalry games between Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Louisville-Kentucky and Clemson-South Carolina would surely be saved.That model would impact two teams in the three scheduled Kickoff Games. Stokan has pitched pairing Virginia-West Virginia to fill the gaps and at least save two of the three games.”
Stokan has already apparently pitched Notre Dame-Alabama and Notr Dame-Miami to all three schools.
Stokan said if the conferences decided to keep the games but push back the start of the season, Mercedes-Benz Stadium would still be able to host the games.
So while I’d rather see the Mountaineers take on a historic program like Florida State, even if the Seminoles are in a bit of a rebuild, at this point I’ll take a season however all parties involved can make work. And if that means a schedule tweak like WVU vs. Virginia, let’s get on it. Although that match up is more appealing on the basketball court.
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