Bulldogs will grab the spotlight on college football's opening night by hosting New Mexico on Thursday Sept.3

Should college football open as usual for 2020, the regular season stands to kick off on a Scott Field Thursday evening.

A source with Mississippi State athletics confirms to GenesPage24/7 that the opening game with New Mexico is moving to September 3 for national broadcast. The 2020 opener had been set for Saturday, the fifth.

Asked if this change is to be settled soon, “You’d be pretty accurate” was the response.

The switch has been in the works for months, even before the current shutdown of all SEC and NCAA spring semester sports games, meets, practices, and workouts. College athletics is playing its part in limiting public gatherings and thus potential spread of COVID-19.

There is no time-frame for such items of immediate interest as when or if to conduct spring, or early summer football practices. However all football-playing schools and conferences are planning on a 2020 season, as are television networks. Mississippi State has been working with the SEC’s partners to assure that the opening Bulldog game and more to point the first game coached in this conference by Mike Leach is in a prime time.

Per the source, the one way to guarantee an evening kickoff for this game was moving it up from Saturday. Now, much like the regular season-ending Battle for the Golden Egg on ESPN, an exclusive evening broadcast slot will show Bulldog football with the always-popular Leach on their sideline.

Mike Leach is always great for ratings, and a Bulldog debut on opening night of college football will draw national attention.

There was another strong incentive for making this particular date change. Opening weekend as usual falls on Labor Day holidays. Mississippi State students typically leave Thursday or Friday, have Monday off, and this early in the school year don’t always return to campus for a Saturday game at any time slot.

Even Leach’s highly-publicized presence would not have been enough to bring everyone back to town and campus for the weekend date. A Thursday evening game solves this potential problem for students, even if it may keep those with Friday work at home. Under the circumstances a full north end zone of bell-ringing students is a fair trade-off.

And, in case these home-game circumstances were not enough to make the Thursday case, the source pointed out moving the game up allows two extra days of preparation for the road trip to North Carolina State.

What the source did not state but most Bulldog folk understand already, a week-night game removes the annual conflict of opening day-football or opening day-dove season.

This change is not part of the SEC’s contract with ESPN to provide two conference games each season for Thursday evening broadcast. State and Ole Miss already have one of those slots covered, on Thanksgiving Night, November 26.

As far as the Egg Bowl’s future, this 2020 game completes a second two-year deal of Thursday games. While also not official, every indication is State, Ole Miss, and the SEC are eager to see the cycle renew a third time. In fact all parties were working on this when the current public health crisis halted meetings and talking.

If the arrangement continues the 2021 Egg Bowl will be on November 25; and in ’22 on the 24th.

While a familiar arrangement for both fan bases some fans aren’t happy giving up part or all their holiday Thursday to attend even the ultimate rivalry. However, a MSU official has explained, this way both schools receive an automatic national television audience for a game that if played on Saturday would not be guaranteed such a market at all.

In fact, depending on what the teams are doing any one year, and with higher-profile matchups that day, the uncomfortable probability would be an 11:00am central kickoff for the Egg Bowl. A source said the schools have enquired about the Black Friday SEC slot but it is taken for now. Arkansas-Missouri have played this game recently..

So along with all the Thanksgiving Night positives is avoiding a Saturday morning negative and road trip. Informally, too, recent years’ eye-tests hint that Mississippi State’s home crowd for a holiday Egg Bowl is less-impacted by the day and time than has been the case in Oxford.

Besides, for Bulldogs who won’t set foot in arch-alien territory, they can stay home and watch the NFL’s annual holiday games including Dak Prescott in the day; then cheer on the Bulldogs from a safe evening distance.

All this presumes there will be football as scheduled this fall. Or at all. Otherwise, said a source at State, for everyone in the game “The financial implications are too awful to discuss.”

Meanwhile Mississippi State continues to put farther-future slates in place. A change has been made to the 2021 schedule forced by the Ohio Valley Conference. By assigning Eastern Illinois a conference game on October 2, EIU cannot fulfill the contracted trip to Starkville.

Mississippi State has been able to excuse EIU from the deal without any penalty, and secure a fourth non-conference game. However it will be at a much later date, as Tennessee State will be on Scott Field on November 20. This means an open date that had been booked before the ’21 Egg Bowl is now occupied.

Making this change of schedule reads simpler than it was. As a source said, “about nine dominos” had to fall for State and around the SEC to get the 12th game settled. While some might prefer State have a free weekend before playing the arch-foe at home, a look at recent years shows Bulldog teams have had some real issues coming off open dates.

With the spring-present in such flux there stands to be a long break before Bulldogs of any sort and squad are back to work. But planning for a real season can’t slow down and if there is football come fall Mississippi State can claim the honor of kicking off the first full weekend, much as the program did in 2001 with the first game played after 9/11.