Peach Bowl CEO moving forward for start of college football
Quarterback Bo Nix and the Auburn Tigers have a date with North Carolina in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff in Atlanta on Sept. 12, that is if the game goes as planned. (Auburn Media Relations)
By GRAHAM DUNN
Gary Stokan says no venue has ever been a host to three major college football games in a week’s time in 151 years.
“My staff told me I was crazy to schedule that but we are still trying to figure out several scenarios,” Stokan said. “The SEC, Big 12 and ACC control our destiny.”
If the president/CEO of the Peach Bowl has his way, that would happen the first week of the college football season.
Stokan has been on the circuit of late building up the ideas of A) playing college football this season; and b) keeping a splash of non-conference games among the Power 5 conferences that have yet to announce their intentions for the upcoming season.
There is good reason for his canvassing. Mercedes-Benz Stadium is scheduled to have three games as part of the annual Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Series. It opens on Saturday, Sept. 5 with Florida State and West Virginia and on Labor Day Georgia is scheduled to face Virginia.
Auburn faces North Carolina the following Saturday on Sept. 12.
Stokan is convinced based on conversations that the power brokers in the three conferences want to get a season in somehow, someway.
“The six schools definitely want to play,” Stokan said. “I think the conference commissioners also philosophically want to play the games that are scheduled. But the medical people and the infection rates are going to have something to say about that.”
A very important meeting is set for Friday among the NCAA Board of Governors regarding protocols for the upcoming season… if there is a season. Stokan believes some type of decision will come no later than the end of this month.
“They want to get as much information as they can,” he said. “We had a two hour conversation with the Mercedes-Benz people today and they are getting ready for their NFL protocol. We will all put together our budget to tell them what kind of ticket allotment they have and what kind of payout we will provide.”
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has been somewhat guarded in his ideas of what the season will look like. He has stated repeatedly that the league will wait until the last minute to decide if the season plays as is or moves or is not played at all.
“We are running out of time to correct and get things right,” he said, “and as a society we owe it to each other to be as healthy as we can be.”
Should the season be moved into 2021, Stokan said the bowls and preseason games will be ready to move with them.
“The New Year’s Six bowl games CEOs talked once a week and we’ve all agreed that we would be willing to move our games to after whatever type season we have and meet the demands of the bowl season. Even they fall back into the spring, we will be prepared for both the Kickoff games and the Peach Bowl,” he said.
With Auburn now looking for an opening game due to the postponement of SWAC football, where the Tigers’ opening opponent Alcorn State resides, Stokan said he would be open to moving Auburn-North Carolina to the first weekend of the season.
“We’d be fine with that,” he said. “That would be Auburn’s lone Power 5 game. We’d have to play Virginia or North Carolina on that Monday due to our agreement with the ACC.”