Everyone’s favorite subject, SEC scheduling, is back in the spotlight. It’s both in and out of conference, and there were two moments from the weekend to illustrate both of them:
There was Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne going on social media to voice his frustration about his team being left out of the College Football Playoff field, complaining that schedule strength didn’t win out:
Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country. We had an extremely challenging schedule and recognize there were two games in particular that we did not perform as well as we should have.
We have said that we would need to see how…
— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) December 8, 2024
Of course, all three of Alabama’s losses were in conference games, which leads to the second moment: Kirby Smart, on the stage after winning the SEC championship, on what a first-round bye meant.
“It means rest for a team that Greg Sankey and his staff sent on the road, all year long,” Smart said, while pointing directly at the SEC commissioner a few steps away.
The cameras caught Sankey expressionless a few seconds later, but several sources who were there say that may not mean the commissioner was angry; no one could hear each other on stage. (“It was a cluster up there,” said one person.)
Still, it’s a reminder of the simmering debate about whether the SEC will go to a nine-game schedule, as the Big Ten and Big 12 have done (although not the ACC). Then came the Alabama snub, which largely was greeted nationwide as a positive: A three-loss team that didn’t make its conference championship game didn’t engender much sympathy.
But ultimately the SEC and its schools are charged with doing what is right for themselves or at least what they think is right. That comes after a first season in a non-division format that saw the conference beat itself up — but produced some great games.
“We’re going to finish the season as the most-watched college football conference,” Sankey said last week, pointing out that four of the regular season’s top five most-watched games, and 16 of the top 20, involved an SEC team.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s conference got three teams in the College Football Playoff. (Michael Wade / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The SEC won the regular season as far as TV ratings. It remains to be seen if it wins the CFP, so what happens during the next month could have a big bearing on scheduling decisions. One voice in the SEC — longtime Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione — urged Monday to not make emotional decisions.
“I still believe the quality of games that are played will matter and should matter,” Castiglione said. “I believe quality games matter for the health of college football. We’ve continually said the most important element of the college football season is its regular season, and that has to be the No. 1 priority, period. And if there is a growing perception that scheduling quality matchups is not helpful to determining a team’s position in the Playoff, then we’ve got a serious problem on our hands. That is not good for college football. There has, and should always be, an incentive for teams to create compelling matchups.”
A look at where things stand within the SEC on scheduling:
Eight vs. nine SEC games
Sankey, unprompted, addressed the question last week.
“We will learn from this season,” he said. “We will use the information gained from our competition to inform our decision-making as we move forward.”
Next season will feature an eight-game conference schedule with the same opponents as this year but the home sites flipped. The dates will be announced Wednesday night on SEC Network.
The decision on 2026 and beyond still needs to be made. The conference could wait through next season but would rather not, so a decision before the spring meetings in Destin, Fla., seems likely.
The main hold-up until now has been getting more money from Disney for giving ABC and ESPN eight more conference games per season. Ironically, the way this season has gone — exciting games that rated well — it may be easier to get that money from Disney, but now some in the SEC may be less willing to do it.
Only one team survived the regular season with one loss, Texas. Only two had two losses, Georgia and Tennessee, and everyone else missed the CFP. Whether they’re right or not, coaches and administrators within the SEC feel they’re in the deepest and best conference, and an extra game risks an extra loss.
One possibility: The SEC again punts the decision, going with an eight-game schedule for just the 2026-27 seasons. But within those eight games, the important secondary rivalries are played: Texas vs. Texas A&M, Alabama vs. Tennessee and Auburn vs. Georgia. Those games would not be played every year if the SEC went to a permanent eight-game format. This would be a way for the SEC to keep the marquee games going while not exposing itself to the extra game that could hurt Playoff hopes.
There is still plenty of sentiment within the conference to go to nine games. But some would want built-in protections in the next CFP deal, and that’s not likely to happen this spring. So the SEC will have to proceed with its future scheduling format without knowing what the CFP format will look like, which would make another two-year, eight-game format, a fallback option.
“I think we want to leave ourselves open to any and all opportunities to gather information to make a decision,” Castiglione said.
Nonconference scheduling
Byrne felt he was in a good position to talk about nonconference scheduling: Alabama played at Wisconsin this year and has two power-conference opponents scheduled every year through 2034. (Wisconsin and Florida State are on the docket next year.)
Alabama isn’t alone: Georgia played Clemson and Georgia Tech this year and has future series with Ohio State (2030-31), Florida State (2027-28) and Louisville (2026-27). But Georgia canceled a planned series with UCLA for 2025-26, which may be a sign of where things are heading, especially if the SEC does eventually go to nine games.
But attendance remains a concern, especially with revenue sharing about to add around $23 million in annual expenses for every athletic department. That could work in several ways: Most SEC schools can fill up their stadiums no matter the opponent. But doing it for three or four weaker opponents every year makes it harder. At the same time, a home-and-home marquee series could make less money during those two years than two weaker opponents. That’s why schools are seeing what they can get out of neutral-site games, such as Georgia and Florida extending their agreement in Jacksonville while upping the guarantee to $10 million per school.
Castiglione believes in harder scheduling: “I think the public has spoken. People want to see good games.” But it can’t be every week, as he pointed to another consideration: roster turnover in the transfer portal era.
“Teams need some games to develop chemistry. So playing Top 25 opponents each one of the 12 weeks, that’s not a sustainable model either,” Castiglione said. “Everybody has to adopt a scheduling philosophy that is balanced with the quality of opponents that they’ll face during their conference season. There are just so many moving parts with this.”
It’s yet another quirk of college sports: Teams make their nonconference schedules. And conferences make their schedules, which in the mega-conference era are not created equal. The result is varying information that is given to a committee that makes a subjective decision on who makes the Playoff.
(Top photo of Kirby Smart, center: Brett Davis / Imagn Images)
