The Southeastern Conference’s slogan, “It just means more,” could soon refer to the number of football games the league schedules.
SEC coaches and athletic directors have been meeting this week at a resort on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Atop the agenda is whether the conference schedule should expand from eight to nine games when the league itself grows from 14 to 16 teams with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma.
The SEC presidents, who have final say on schedule change, meet Thursday with the ADs. Sankey said the executive committee would be updated on the discussions and the conference was in no rush to make a decision, but would not commit to whether the group would vote.Even those in the conference who have generally been supportive of playing more league games acknowledge it's a move that comes with potential complications.
Regardless of the number of games the SEC plays among itself, Sankey said this week the league is heading toward scrapping its divisional format when Oklahoma and Texas jump on board.The Big 12 schools are currently scheduled to join the SEC in 2025. The Longhorns and Sooners are contractually bound to the Big 12 until then and it could cost tens of millions of dollars to break the deal even a year early.
Even though the SEC might not implement a new format until 2025, a decision needs to come fairly soon so its schools can adjust or get out of game contracts for nonconference games that have been signed years in advance. “You go back now and look at the results and the history and that kind of proved to be the right call,” West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons said. “So we don’t want to screw that up as we move forward.”Adding another conference game in the SEC would also help increase the frequency with which teams play, but it come with downside.
“You have each team, each program sees itself differently based on where it’s at what it does and where it can be,” Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said.
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