The SEC plans to stick to its regular eight-game conference schedule when Texas and Oklahoma join the conference later this summer. Talks about moving to a nine-game schedule heated up on Tuesday after Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte made a statement during a town hall event.
“We have eight games scheduled right now,” Del Conte said, according to InsideTexas.com. “We’re working on going to a nine-game schedule, but we have a ways to go with that. I would say this year we have an eight-game schedule. The following year, we have another eight-game schedule. Then we’ll look at going into a nine-game conference schedule.”
If Conte is right, that puts the conference at a nine-game schedule by 2026. The biggest takeaway here is Conte’s acknowledgement of the SEC playing an eight-game schedule in 2025. There’s no official word on this from the conference as of today.
There were discussions within the conference about moving to a nine-game format when adding Texas and Oklahoma, but talks stalled after ESPN didn’t agree to increase its payout if a ninth conference game was added.
[lawrence-related id=97739]
A nine-game conference schedule could mean an additional permanent opponent for teams across the SEC. Georgia’s only current permanent opponent is the Florida Gators.