The excitement of Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC may have worn off because, with more teams, the conference has to figure out who will play who.
SEC coaches and ADs will meet in Florida on Tuesday to discuss one of the most important topics in college football right now: the perfect SEC schedule format. The teams mentioned above will officially begin their SEC play in 2024, which means an eight or nine-game conference schedule will be on hand.
The newcomers will not be able to vote, but they will have representatives attend the meeting.
If the nine-game format is implemented, each team will have three permanent opponents while playing other SEC teams at least every other year. However, it sounds much more confusing to do it that way, so nobody has agreed to a scheduling format.
According to speculations, the Hogs’ potential permanent three are expected to be Ole Miss, Missouri, and Texas.
Nick Saban has already expressed his displeasure about Alabama’s potential permanent three (Auburn, LSU, Tennessee), and he is more in favor of the current eight-game format.
The new 16-team conference won’t be divided into divisions. With the current division set up, the SEC West is the overall better side of the SEC, but that could change if Alabama and LSU are shifted to the East with Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida.
A realignment and eight-game conference schedule for the Hogs seems to be the best option. League commissioner Greg Sansky hasn’t given much indication of where these discussions could go, but the entire college sports world will be watching.