With the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns set to make the move for the SEC potentially as early as the 2023 season, SEC leadership has been in discussions about how to put together the conference schedule.
With 16 teams, there have been considerations of going to divisions or pods, but it seems the system that’s gotten the most traction is one where the teams in the conference play three or four permanent rivals and then five or six games against the remainder of the SEC on a rotating basis.
Another part of the discussion is how many conference games to play. If the SEC plays nine conference games, that potentially eliminates a nonconference game. Last season, each member of the SEC played four nonconference games. They played seven SEC games to give them 11 total regular season games in 2021.
To stay at 11 games and play nine SEC games, the conference would have to cut two of their nonconference games. Not much of an issue for the top of the conference who are going to make bowl games, but the middle of the conference might want that extra non-conference
Nick Saban recently spoke on the idea of scheduling and he favors dropping a non-conference game.
Nick Saban on 9 SEC league games: “I’ve always been for playing more conference games, eliminating some of these games that fans, players, supporters are not really interested in. What is best model? That’s the issue. Are other conferences going to play more conference games?"
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) May 31, 2022
He brings up a valid question. Will other conferences play more games inside the conference as the SEC will? At the same time, the SEC’s been notorious for scheduling FCS schools as part of their nonconference schedule.
If the SEC ends up settling on three permanent opponents and nine total games in the conference, there are a lot of interesting possibilities that could come together as the permanent opponents for each of the 16 members of the new-look SEC.
There isn’t a perfect model and it’ll be a struggle to keep every annual matchup together but after several attempts and discussions with analysts who cover teams in the SEC, this could be how the future of the SEC looks in regards to permanent opponents.
I’m sure there are fans out there that won’t love the permanent opponents that were listed for their team, but this is the undertaking that Greg Sankey and the SEC are working through. After countless hours of discussion and brainstorming, this is a pretty good look at what the permanent opponents in the SEC could look like.
I fully anticipate being roasted a bit for this, but it was fun working through the process.