SEC football scheduling is about to change. Will that be good or bad for Kentucky?
The main goal for this week’s SEC spring meetings down in Destin, Florida, involves the hope that Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher hug it out. Just kidding. Sort of.
Actually, the most important business at the resumption of the annual Memorial Day week confab — the last two suffered COVID cancellations — has much to do with putting a complicated jigsaw puzzle together.
We’re talking about the SEC football schedule. Oklahoma and Texas are scheduled to join the “It Just Means More” league in 2025. That means the conference has to figure out a way to incorporate its two newest members into an already controversial scheduling dynamic. And the clock is ticking.
Further complicating the calculation is a recent NCAA declaration that a conference football championship can take place between the top two teams in the league. Divisions are no longer needed. The Pac-12 and Mountain West both wasted no time dropping its divisions for 2022. The ACC is expected to do so in 2023. Look for the SEC to join the crowd.
According to both Pete Thamel of ESPN and Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated, the SEC has run 40 computer models of what future scheduling might look like and pared the finalists to two. One model involves sticking with each team playing eight conference games. The second model would increase the schedule to nine league games.
The new eight-game scenario would involve each team playing one so-called permanent opponent while rotating seven others. Each team would play every other team in the league at least once every two years. The nine-game model has each team playing three so-called permanent opponents, while rotating the other six. Again, each SEC team would play every other SEC team at least once every two years, a definite improvement over the current format.
If the SEC uses the one-permanent model, rivalries would surely rule the day. The possible breakdown: Alabama-Auburn; Mississippi State-Ole Miss; Florida-Georgia; Oklahoma-Texas; Arkansas-Missouri; LSU-Texas A&M; Tennessee-Vanderbilt. That would leave Kentucky playing South Carolina on an annual basis.
The three-permanent model would be much messier. Some teams would be playing five league home games in a season, while others played just four. On the flip side, it could preserve other annual rivalries such as Auburn-Georgia, South Carolina-Georgia, Alabama-Tennessee and, yes, Kentucky-Tennessee. It could also mandate an annual Texas-Texas A&M matchup.
Thamel has reported the SEC will also discuss the idea of holding its own college football playoffs. An eight-team postseason SEC tournament is one scenario. To me, that’s a non-starter. It might be good for the league, but it would be bad for the sport overall. We need to grow college football, not consolidate it into one giant mega-conference.
TV will surely play a role in all this, as well. ESPN’s exclusive 10-year contract to televise SEC football starts in 2024 — no more CBS — and surely the World Wide Leader will have a seat at the table. It could lobby for the nine-game conference schedule to increase its inventory of games. If that’s the case, however, the SEC might want to renegotiate the terms of the deal.
While the eight-game schedule is better for Kentucky, the guess here is the nine-game format rules the day. In an era of escalating costs (NIL money), the best way to address the problem of declining attendance is to replace Cupcake U. with a recognizable name in the season-ticket package. Better still, a recognizable SEC name.
In the end, whatever the conference comes up will be an improvement over the current format. As it stands now, the league schedule is almost rote — six division opponents and one permanent cross-division opponent making up seven of the eight games.
Consider that Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012. Since then, UK and A&M have played just once — 2018 in College Station. The Aggies have never played at Kroger Field. What’s the point of having a 16-team conference if your fan base rarely gets to see the majority of the teams?
So here’s the message for the SEC powers that be this week: Spend more time on the puzzle than in the pool.
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