The additional conference opponents unveiled Friday for SEC teams should come as a big relief for the league’s top contenders.

Alabama, Georgia and LSU — ranked No. 3, 4 and 5 in the Amway Coaches Poll — avoided adding games that would appear risky on paper. Meanwhile, schools with new coaches like Arkansas and Missouri appeared to draw a much more difficult assignment in the league’s 10-game configuration for this season. 

Alabama, which already had cross-division games scheduled with Georgia and at Tennessee, added a home game against Kentucky and will play at Missouri. Georgia adds a home game with Mississippi State and a road game at Arkansas. LSU, the defending national champion, probably came out the best, drawing Missouri and a road game at Vanderbilt to go along with previously scheduled games against South Carolina and at Florida. 

There were a few potential blockbuster games added to the schedule. Florida, No. 8 in the Amway Coaches Poll, will travel to No. 13 Texas A&M. Tennessee, which landed just outside the preseason top 25, will host Texas A&M and travel to No. 11 Auburn. 

AMWAY COACHES POLL: Everything you need to know

COLLEGE FOOTBALL 2020: Amway Coaches Poll foreshadows a season of volatility, unpredictability

TOP 25: Five teams overrated in the preseason Amway Coaches Poll

If anyone has a potential complaint about the way the schedule shook out, it’s new coaches at Arkansas (Sam Pittman) and Missouri (Eli Drinkwitz). The Razorbacks, who already have a tough road in the West, added Georgia and a road game at Florida to the mix. Missouri’s additional opponents are Alabama and at LSU.

The SEC is attempting to play a 10-game, conference-only schedule this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic that will begin on Sept. 26. According to the league office, the dates for all games will be announced within the next two weeks.

“We made every effort to create a schedule that is as competitive as possible and builds on the existing eight Conference games that had already been scheduled for 2020,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a release. “This schedule is a one-year anomaly that we have developed under unique circumstances presented by the impact of COVID-19.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Dan Wolken on Twitter @DanWolken.