Opinion: The SEC should remain at an 8-game schedule

The SEC is considering a move to nine games. Here’s why the conference should stick with eight.

The winds of change are blowing in college football. They have been for some time now.

The last few years have brought the proliferation of the transfer portal, sweeping name, image and likeness legislation, news of the expanded playoff, and seismic conference realignment.

Shake-ups of this size have ripple effects. The shifting of conferences led each league to reevaluate how it operates. Many conferences are saying goodbye to divisions, changing the way scheduling is done.

With Texas and Oklahoma set to join the SEC in 2024, the conference is facing its own questions about how to league should be formatted. The biggest question is a scheduling issue. Should the league play eight or nine conference games?

League meetings are getting underway in Destin this week and according to early reports, the league’s considering remaining with its status quo of eight games.

Staying put at eight would be the right call.

There are some benefits that would come with nine. We’d get the rare cross-divisional matchups that we’ve wanted to see more of. Games such as Auburn vs. Florida and LSU vs. Georgia shouldn’t only come around every six years.

Nine would also allow SEC teams to match Big Ten and Big 12 schedules, two conferences that play nine conference games themselves. But right now, the benefits of eight far outweigh the benefits of nine.

When it comes to scheduling, we’re already due for a shakeup. The SEC could do away with traditional divisions, a move that might be forced due to expansion.

Doing away with divisions results in a system where programs will be exposed to each other more than they already are. That’s done without ever moving to nine games.

You’d have three of four annual opponents and the rest of the schedule is a rotation. Programs would go four years max without having a game.

The SEC’s strength of schedule would be improved at nine games, but at what cost?

This conference has no issues making the playoff only playing eight games. With playoff expansion pending, schedule strength will only be less of an issue.

And Big Ten fans will roll their eyes at this next bit, but the SEC has been a tougher conference this century. Tennessee, LSU, Florida, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Texas, and Oklahoma have all won national titles since the inception of the BCS.

The Big Ten, upon the addition of USC, will have just two programs that can claim a title in that span.

Playing an eight-game schedule against several opponents who are capable at competing at the top of the sport is as tough, if not tougher, than a nine-game Big Ten schedule that in any given year can feature three straight games against Indiana, Rutgers and Purdue.

It’s just a different discussion.

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