Everything about 2020 has been bizarre, and the SEC Championship Game is not an exception. The conference announced Thursday that the kickoff for the Dec. 19 game will be at 8 p.m. ET -- a shift from its typical 4 p.m. ET slot. It will be the first time in almost 20 years that the game will be a prime-time kickoff. It will still be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and televised by CBS Sports.
It is yet another change for a conference that has been adjusting nearly everything on the fly in 2020.
The original schedule was scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 10-game, conference-only slate was created in its place. The Sept. 26 start date forced the conference to push the conference championship game back two weeks from its originally scheduled Dec. 5 date. The 2020 game will be the first time that it won't be held on the first Saturday in December since 2001, when it was moved back one week due to the cancellations caused by the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The SEC West has owned the championship game for over a decade. A team from the west division has won the conference 10 of the last 11 years, with Georgia's 2017 title being the only exception. The Bulldogs, of course, fell to Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship later that season.
