Auburn's 2020 schedule has officially taken its first hit.

The Tigers' season-opening foe, Alcorn State, will not play football this fall. The Southwestern Athletic Conference, from which Alcorn State hails, announced Monday that its 10 institutions will not participate in fall sports due to coronavirus concerns, effectively canceling the Week 1 matchup in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The game was scheduled for Sept. 5.

July has seen numerous divisions and conferences, mostly from the FCS or Division-II ranks, make similar decisions to cancel fall sports.

On the Power Five level, the Big Ten and Pac-12 said earlier this month that their programs will implement conference-only schedules if football is played this fall. Stadium's Brett McMurphy reported the ACC is expected to do the same.

In Auburn's case, if those restrictions are seen through, the Tigers will not play North Carolina, from the ACC, in Week 2 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

In the wake of the Big Ten and Pac 12's announcements, the SEC met with its athletic directors and leaders last week.

"It is clear that current circumstances related to COVID-19 must improve and we will continue to closely monitor developments around the virus on a daily basis," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. "In the coming weeks we will continue to meet regularly with campus leaders via video conferences and gather relevant information while guided by medical advisors.

Sankey said in the announcement that "late July" will provide the conference the "best clarity for making the important decisions ahead of us."

Sankey later in the week announced that any student-athlete who opts out of fall 2020 competition due to health concerns related to COVID-19 will have his or her scholarship fully honored.

Auburn is also slated to play Southern Miss and Massachusetts in the nonconference this season.

For Auburn, its earliest opening for a nonconference game — for the possibility of rescheduling the Alcorn State matchup — is 2023. Auburn was set to pay ASU $475,000 for the game, according to the contract agreement between the teams.

If the SEC moves to a conference-only schedule, Auburn's first matchup would be Sept. 19 against Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss.

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