SEC Touts Strength Amid Talk of Schedule, Playoff Expansion

SEC Touts Strength Amid Talk of Schedule, Playoff Expansion originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

ATLANTA — The future of the SEC football schedule remains in limbo. The SEC currently plays eight conference games — in line with the ACC — while the Big Ten and Big 12 play nine, a reported sticking point in the ongoing College Football Playoff expansion discussion.

Commissioner Greg Sankey was noncommittal on whether the SEC will adopt a nine-game conference schedule in 2026 in his opening remarks at the conference’s media days on Monday. As far as a timeline for that decision, Sankey said: “It won’t linger terribly much longer.”

Understanding how the CFP committee will evaluate strength of schedule and strength of record, Sankey said, will inform that decision. This follows a 2024 season, the first with a 12-team playoff, that saw three SEC schools — all with three losses — narrowly miss the playoff field.

The era of the 12-team playoff may well be short-lived. The SEC and Big Ten are in the driver seat over the future of the format, which could expand to 14 or 16 teams as early as 2026. However, the 12-team format might also stay in place, Sankey said, if the two conferences cannot come to an agreement.

“I think there's this notion that there has to be this magic moment and something has to happen with expansion and it has to be forced, no,” Sankey said. “When you're given authority, you want to be responsible in using that authority.”

The status quo could also win out in the SEC scheduling debate. Sankey admitted that staying at eight would be easier logistically, though he said moving to nine wouldn’t be a major challenge, either.

Sankey characterized the SEC, which expanded to 16 teams in 2024 with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, as a “superconference” and talked up the strength of its schedule — regardless of length. He also pointed to the fact that every SEC member school played at least nine games against Power 4 opponents in 2024, while some played as many as 10. That will be the case again in 2025.

“I don't think there is anybody that would trade their nine games and want to come play our eight games you play down here and the places you play down here," Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said. "You can have teams not having a really good year for them, but you got to go play at their place down here. It's just different."

Kiffin likened the conference to the NFL, saying that its strength bears out in depth, number of draft picks and stadium atmospheres.

“If we're talking about win-loss record, they're not all the same based upon what conference you're in and who you play,” said LSU coach Brian Kelly.

Therein lies the strength of record component, a common refrain in the conference that proudly proclaims “It Just Means More.” Playing a ninth conference game invites risk in the form of a potentially playoff-disqualifying loss. It also doubles as an opportunity to pick up a quality win.

For as much change has come to college football in recent years, months and even days, the future is still in flux. And some of these outstanding decisions dovetail with one another.

“How many teams in this probably have a lot to do with how are we going to select them, what's the selection process going to be,” Kelly said. “I think at the end of the day, that selection process will probably be having the end in mind first, and that will then generate the answers to the other questions in terms of how many teams and what's your conference schedule look like in terms of how many you play.”

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 14, 2025, where it first appeared.