Common sense often flows like molasses in this world, especially within an entity as large as the now 16-team Southeastern Conference.
Finally, however, the SEC’s membership has come together around the bargaining table and done the right thing when it comes to football scheduling. The smart thing. Starting in 2026, the SEC will shift from eight to nine conference games.
Like a lot of people, I’m not a huge fan of enormous change. But once the SEC stepped foot into the reality of an expanded 16-team conference with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, nine games made the most sense for all sorts of reasons:
• Nine games, with three permanent opponents per school and six rotating opponents (divisional play remains a relic of the past) lay the framework for every SEC school to play every other school within a four-year period. It also allows schools to preserve primary and secondary rivalries as compared to the prospect of one permanent per school with eight games. Texas can play Oklahoma and Texas A&M every year. Alabama can play Auburn and Tennessee. Auburn can play Bama and Georgia. And LSU can play … well … we’ll come to LSU in a minute.
• Nine games put the SEC in step with the other power four conferences. The Big Ten and Big 12 already had nine-game conference slates in place. The ACC is expected to follow the SEC’s example. Nine games (plus at least one Power Four non-conference game) means the SEC will be on equal footing with the other conferences for College Football Playoff consideration.
• Nine games mean each school will have one less rent-a-win for its season ticket holders to endure.
• Nine games mean more inventory for the SEC’s TV partner, ESPN/ABC, and almost certainly will mean a bigger rights contract for the conference.
The new format isn’t perfect. Nothing is. Every other year, half the SEC schools will only get four conference home games while the other half will get five. Alabama will, of course, always get five. (I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Probably). And it means one more game that will be a potential loss, thus hampering someone’s CFP chances, though once the CFP expands to 14 or 16 teams that handicap will be lessened. That means Auburn’s chances of claiming yet another fake national title are intact.
Overall, this is a win-win-win-win for the SEC. From an LSU perspective, it’s also a multi-faceted victory. LSU athletic director Scott Woodward and coach Brian Kelly have long lobbied for nine games. Now the question is, which nine?
When this process began, LSU said its permanents were likely to be Bama, Ole Miss and A&M. Whether that is how it will turn out for LSU remains to be seen. One has to believe that teams like Mississippi State — the team LSU has played more than anyone — or Arkansas could be possibilities because of geography. Could LSU’s annual clash with Florida, which has produced so many great games over the years, be preserved?
We’ll find out in December. For now, it’s enough that the SEC finally cleared its logjam and picked a football schedule format for the future. The right format.