With conferences looking more and more like they are all going to play a conference only schedule, it was believed that we would lose some of the great yearly rivalry games such as Florida-Florida State, Clemson-South Carolina, and Kentucky-Louisville, among others.
Gary Stokan, president and CEO of the Peach Bowl, started thinking about what to do when he found out that the Pac-12 and Big 10 decided on playing conference only schedules. With the possibility of him losing all three of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff games, Florida State Vs. West Virginia (Sept 5th), Georgia Vs. Virginia (Sept. 7th) and Auburn Vs. North Carolina (Sept 12th), Gary went to the commissioners of the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 and proposed a 'plus one' schedule.
Via CBS Sports:
With all Power Five conferences seemingly trending toward a shortened regular season amid COVID-19, Stokan said he "promoted" the idea of a "plus one" schedule to commissioners of the SEC, ACC and Big 12. In other words, a standard conference schedule with one additional nonconference game. That would add up to nine regular-season games for the SEC and ACC. For the Big 12, it would be 10 games.
The "plus one" structure would preserve traditional SEC-ACC rivalry games this season in a limited schedule -- Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech, South Carolina-Clemson, Kentucky-Louisville -- that would otherwise be lost in a conference-only format.
In that scenario, Stokan already knows he could lose Florida State, West Virginia, Georgia and Virginia from his kickoff showcase.
It's a weird twist on addition by subtraction that would allow Stokan to be that matchmaker, creating a pool of possible new opponents for the Sept. 5 and Sept. 7 games. The Auburn-North Carolina game theoretically would not be impacted.
Stokan did say that the commissioners of the three leagues would take his proposal "under consideration".
In-state rivalry games should not be lost should all conferences move to conference only scheduling. If they reside in the same state and play on an annual basis, those games should not be lost.