GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
With 16 teams in the Southeastern Conference, an even-numbered, 10-game schedule would make a lot more sense, but at least the SEC is finally going from eight to nine games in football as of the 2026 season, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey announced on Thursday.
“Adding a ninth game underscores our universities’ commitment to delivering the most competitive football schedule in the nation,” Sankey said in a release. “This format protects rivalries, increases competitive balance – and paired with our requirement to play an additional power opponent – ensures SEC teams are well prepared to compete and succeed in the College Football Playoff.”
And if that last part ends up being true, it will be needed as the SEC has not won a national championship in football since the 2022 season as the Big Ten has won the last two.
Although, Michigan’s *2023 title basically has an asterisk next to it, considering the NCAA’s recent hammer sentencing of the sinister spying program and its top villain former coach Jim Harbaugh, who rode out of town to the NFL and San Diego ahead of the sheriff.
BRIAN KELLY: “THE BIG TEN HOLDS IT ON THE SEC”
The nine-game schedule was approved by the presidents and chancellors at the 16 SEC schools, Sankey said, after a recommendation for the move by the 16 athletic directors. Eight SEC teams will play five home games with four road games in the league, while the other eight will have one more road game than home game.
SEC teams have played an eight-game schedule since 1992 when the league increased by two to 12 teams and split into six-team East and West divisions with South Carolina and Arkansas joining that year. Sankey clinged to eight games until near the end because – by simple math – more games hurt SEC teams from keeping a good enough record to qualify for the playoffs.
Alabama, for example, would have made the College Football Playoff last year in a seven-game SEC schedule. Instead, it lost its eighth SEC game to lowly Oklahoma, which finished 6-7, in embarrassing fashion at 24-3 to finish the regular season at 9-3 (5-3, SEC).
The league also apparently plans on keeping the SEC Championship Game, which was added in 1992, even though it has grown more and more meaningless with the growth of the playoff system from two teams to four and 12 in 2024.
While the SEC stayed stuck with an eight-game schedule, the Big Ten started playing a nine-game schedule nearly a decade ago in 2016 when it had 14 teams. It is up to 18 teams now.
The SEC remained at eight, even though it grew to 14 teams in 2012 with the additions of Texas A&M and Missouri and to 16 in 2024 with Texas and Oklahoma. The SEC ended the division format in the ’24 season and will keep it that way with the nine-game schedule in ’26.
LSU ATHLETIC DIRECTOR SCOTT WOODWARD WAS IN FAVOR OF 9-GAME SCHEDULE
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban, who retired after the 2023 season after winning six national championships from the 2009 through 2020 seasons with the Tide and one at LSU in the 2003 season, has argued for a decade or more that the SEC should go to nine games.
“The SEC has established itself as the leader in delivering the most compelling football schedule in college athletics,” Sankey said. “Fans will see traditional rivalries preserved and new match-ups more frequently.”
The SEC will have each school have three permanent opponents out of the nine with the other six being rotated such that each team will face every other SEC team at least once every two years and every opponent home and away in four years.
Which three teams will be LSU’s permanent opponents will be a hot button issue. Hopefully, the SEC will wise up and pair LSU and Texas as annual combatants as it is a natural, “new match-up” rivalry between border schools waiting to happen.
With the LSU-Alabama game being the best pairing in the SEC for s many years of this century, that will likely stay. So, the third school for the Tigers should be a breather – perhaps Mississippi State, which has continued to struggle more than Vanderbilt. And perhaps in the future, if LSU is smart, it will schedule a breather, non-conference game for its opener.
Under the new scheduling format, Sankey also said SEC teams will be required to schedule at least one high quality non-conference team from one of three power conferences – the Big Ten, the Big 12 or the Atlantic Coast – or Notre Dame each season.
“The SEC will continue to evaluate its policies to ensure the continued scheduling of high-quality non-conference opponents,” the league release said.
The SEC played seven conference games per year from 1988-1991 and six games from 1974-1987. Prior to 1974, there was no uniform requirement for the number of conference games to be played by each school with most schools playing six or seven league contests per year.
Over the above spans, the SEC never had each team play every other team, which is what several other conferences did around the country, such as the Big Ten and the Big Eight.
Former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes and Michigan coach Bo Schembechler of the Big Ten used to make fun of the SEC in the 1970s for annually avoiding playing each team in its league.
The 2026 SEC schedules will be announced at a later date.
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