David John Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images.
The good news is, the SEC football season is slated to start earlier than initially planned for several teams this coming season. The bad news is, it’ll be hard to attend those games if you can’t make it for a weeknight.
On Thursday, the Southeastern Conference announced that Missouri’s season-opening game against Louisiana Tech and Tennessee’s opener against Ball State have been moved. The games that were initially scheduled for Saturday, September 3 have been moved to Thursday, September 1.
Missouri will also see their season-ending game against SEC rival Missouri end one day early too. That game is being moved from Saturday, November 26 to Friday, November 25.
So the Missouri Tigers are starting their 2022 season two days earlier and ending the regular season one day early. The Vols are similarly starting the season a couple of days early.
Who’s ready to #TigerStripeFaurot ?!
THURSDAY, September 1 | vs. @LATechFB
🔗 https://t.co/cHI0a3ePAl
🎫 https://t.co/UI6WhFiJap#MIZ 🐯🏈 pic.twitter.com/O4MxQ3Fa9t— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) April 14, 2022
Missouri went 6-6 in the 2021 regular season under head coach Eliah Drinkwitz before losing to Army in the Armed Forces Bowl. They’ve gone 11-12 under Drinkwitz in two years, but have not finished better than third in the SEC East since 2014.
Tennessee similarly enjoyed a solid season under first year head coach Josh Heupel last year. The Vols went 7-5 in the regular season, reaching bowl eligibility for just the second time in the last five seasons.
Both of those SEC East teams are going to have a devil of a time knocking off reigning national champion Georgia.
But they’ll have a head start in 2022.