Florida set to visit Ole Miss to open 2020 schedule

The Florida Gators are scheduled to open 2020’s SEC-only schedule by taking on Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi on Saturday, September 26.

The news was revealed during Monday’s SEC Network simulcast of racially clueless radio host Paul Finebaum’s afternoon broadcast

Florida’s last meeting with Ole Miss came in 2015, as the Gators swamped the Rebels 38-10 in arguably the signature win of Jim McElwain’s tenure in Gainesville. The Gators’ last trip to Oxford produced a narrow 30-24 win in 2007 — a result from so long ago that it was Tim Tebow’s first road start as Florida’s quarterback.

If it occurs — a rather questionable proposition, given the state of the spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States and especially in the South — the true road opener will be Florida’s first since 1987, when the Gators fell 31-4 at Miami.

It would also be Florida’s first season opener against an SEC program since 1992, when the Gators hosted Kentucky, and first road opener against an SEC program since 1963 — when Florida visited then-SEC member Georgia Tech.

The rest of Week 1 is set to feature what appear to be mostly lopsided and mostly inter-division matchups, with only two — Mississippi State visiting LSU and Tennessee traveling to South Carolina — pitting divisional foes against each other. Florida is also one of four SEC East teams scheduled to begin its season on the road: Per the SEC’s release, Georgia will travel to Arkansas, Kentucky will play at Auburn, and Vanderbilt will visit Texas A&M.

Alabama, set to visit Missouri, will be the only SEC West team opening up on the road against an SEC East foe.

The SEC will release the rest of its 2020 schedule through SEC Network programming at 7 p.m. Eastern on Monday.