Florida’s games vs. LSU, Missouri officially rescheduled

An outbreak of COVID-19 affecting dozens of Florida Gators players has now led to the postponement of not one but two games on their 2020 schedule.

Florida’s game against LSU, initially scheduled for Saturday, October 17 before being postponed on Wednesday, is now officially scheduled for Saturday, December 12, while Florida’s game against Missouri, initially scheduled for Saturday, October 24, has been pushed back a week to Saturday, October 31.

Florida-Missouri will be televised at 7:30 p.m. on the SEC Network Alternate channel. That game is set to be Florida’s first against a foe other than Georgia on Halloween or in a Halloween night game since a 1987 meeting against Auburn.

(Florida lost that trip to Auburn, 29-6, thanks partly to the Tigers’ Jeff Burger having his eligibility reinstated after accepting a free plane trip on a dove hunt earlier that month. College football, baby!)

Florida’s schedule now contains seven straight games against SEC foes from Halloween to a fortnight before Christmas, the most bizarre late-season stretch fathomable in a season that continues to take unprecedented turns, and will conclude with consecutive meetings against Kentucky, Tennessee, and LSU — all routinely early- to mid-season foes for the Gators.

Florida will also not enjoy a bye week immediately before playing Georgia for the first time since 2009. The Dawgs won’t get to rest that week, either, as their matchup with Kentucky originally scheduled for October 24 has been shifted back a week to help accommodate other SEC scheduling changes.