The football world turned on its head in July of 2021. That’s when it was revealed that the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns would be leaving the Big 12 for the SEC.
While the move upset the apple cart in the Big 12 and had the SEC looking ahead with smooth seas on the horizon, choppy waters have approached as the league still hasn’t decided on a schedule format for the 16-team conference.
The nine-game conference schedule has long been the favorite format. SEC teams would play three permanent opponents and then six other conference opponents in a home-and-home schedule. Every four years, each SEC team would play everyone else in the conference.
But in recent weeks, the nine-game SEC schedule has fallen out of favor among certain administrators and coaches.
Alabama is on the verge of a surprising endorsement for eight conference games after Nick Saban voiced frustration with the SEC’s three proposed permanent rivals for the Tide (Auburn, LSU and Tennessee) should the league expand to nine games. Should the program follow Saban’s battle cry, the Tide would join forces with at least four schools in opposition to the proposal for a nine-game schedule beginning in 2024, sources tell 247Sports. Administrators from 16 SEC schools, including future members Oklahoma and Texas, gather Tuesday through Friday to discuss two models. An eight-game format with one permanent rival and seven rotating opponents (or) a nine-game format with three permanent rivals and six rotating opponents. – Brandon Marcello, 247Sports
According to Marcello, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and South Carolina oppose a nine-game conference schedule. Given the value programs place on earning bowl eligibility, it’s not that surprising. If you’re a team that hangs in the six to eight win range, you’d probably like more flexibility in your schedule to play a potentially weaker opponent in nonconference than an SEC opponent would be.
“Since I’ve been in the league, there have been 23 head coaches fired,” Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops told Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. “When they add a ninth game, that percentage is only going to go up.”
One complication to the nine-game SEC format is the number of nonconference games scheduled by member schools over the next decade plus.
Twelve SEC schools would need to reschedule or cancel as many as 38 non-conference games spanning through 2037 if a nine-game format starts in 2024. Non-conference game contracts differ school to school and game by game, but millions of dollars and business relationships with other conferences are at stake. Compounding the issue is ESPN, the exclusive media rights holder for the SEC beginning in 2024. The SEC has not yet shared with membership how much money ESPN will pay for additional conference games, sources tell 247Sports. ESPN is on the hook to pay nearly $1 billion starting next year as part of its deal updated in 2020. It’s not yet known if ESPN has provided a final number to the SEC for the proposed additional inventory as the media conglomerate continues to face an avalanche of layoffs and cutbacks this year. – Marcello, 247Sports
This week’s meetings may bring an answer to the question, and one of those answers looks more likely to be the eight-team format with one permanent opponent.
A nine-game schedule has the easiest symmetry that also allows each program to welcome everyone to their home in that four-year cycle. That is of course, aside from the neutral site games like the Red River Showdown.
For the Oklahoma Sooners, it’s pretty straightforward. They’ll play the Texas Longhorns every year, regardless of format. The question that remains is what the rest of the schedule will look like in conference play.
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