Exactly what Arkansas’ football schedule will look like in 2020 appears to be coming into focus.

According to Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated, SEC athletics directors approved a 10-game conference-only schedule for the upcoming season during a virtual meeting Wednesday.

Such a move would eliminate the Razorbacks’ marquee non-conference game at Notre Dame, as well as home matchups with Nevada, ULM and Charleston Southern.

A 10-game conference-only schedule would have to be approved by the SEC presidents, who could vote on such a move when they meet virtually Thursday.

The presidents could also delay their vote until next week - after the NCAA Board of Governors decides whether or not to postpone or cancel fall championships. That decision would not impact the College Football Playoff, but it could affect FCS football, volleyball, soccer and cross country.

Three of the Power Five conferences have officially announced their plans for the upcoming football season. The Big Ten and Pac-12 went to conference-only schedules earlier this month, while the ACC just announced Wednesday that it would have an 11-game slate with 10 conference and one non-conference game.

Famous for its independence, Notre Dame is joining the ACC - which it is a member of in all other sports - this season and will adhere to that scheduling format.

Because of that, the Razorbacks’ matchup with the Fighting Irish might not happen even if the SEC ADs and presidents ultimately choose a similar format, which has been discussed as a possibility in order to preserve in-state rivalries like Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech, South Carolina-Clemson and Kentucky-Louisville.

Having already lost games against Wisconsin, Stanford and USC because of decisions by the Big Ten and Pac-12, Notre Dame’s only non-ACC games left are at Navy and at home against Arkansas and Western Michigan.

Considering the game has been played annually since 1927, making it the longest uninterrupted intersectional rivalry in college football, the Fighting Irish would likely choose to keep Navy as its lone non-conference game.

That would require a date and location change, as it's currently scheduled for Sept. 5 or 6 and in Annapolis, Md., both of which don’t fit the ACC’s requirements. (The season will begin the week of Sept. 7-12 and non-conference games must be played at home or in the school’s home state.)

However, Navy and Notre Dame have already shown a willingness to be flexible. The game was originally scheduled to be played Aug. 29 and in Dublin, Ireland. Navy has an opening on its schedule for Sept. 12, as well, after the Patriot League's decision not to play football this fall led to the cancellation of its game against FCS Lafayette.

According to Section 6 of the game contract, which HawgBeat obtained from the UA via an open records request, the Fighting Irish would be allowed to drop their game against Arkansas without penalty.

"Neither party shall be considered to have breached this Agreement for cancelling a Game at any time on any of the following grounds... the party becomes obligated, as a condition of athletic conference membership or affiliation (for football), to play a greater number of regular season football games against conference-designated opponents than it is currently obligated to play against conference-designated opponents in the regular season of the cancelled Game," the contract states.

There is also a clause that allows for cancellation because of "an act of God, national emergency (or) natural disaster" - which the coronavirus pandemic could be considered - but the decision to increase Notre Dame's number of ACC games from five to 10 eliminates any room for interpretation.

It is unclear if Notre Dame's return game at Arkansas, which is scheduled for Oct. 4, 2025, would be affected by such a move or if the game in South Bend, Ind., would be rescheduled.

The Razorbacks' non-conference schedules are completely filled up through the 2024 season and they are also already scheduled to play other Power Five programs through 2028. That means the earliest Arkansas could play at Notre Dame - if this year's game is postponed to a future season - would likely be 2029.

It's also worth noting that Notre Dame’s decision could be made by the SEC if it opts for the 10-game conference-only schedule that Dellenger is reporting.

In addition to playing its six SEC West foes, Arkansas is scheduled to face permanent cross-division rival Missouri (Nov. 28, in Kansas City) and Tennessee (Oct. 31, in Fayetteville), its rotating opponent from the SEC East.

To get to 10 games, the Razorbacks would need two more games against Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina or Vanderbilt. The SEC could also abandon the current schedule and completely redo it.

Arkansas enters the 2020 season with a 19-game conference losing streak, which is the sixth-longest such streak in SEC history.