The College Football Playoff format for the 2026 schedule still has not been determined. That remains in limbo with a Dec. 1 deadline set while the Big Ten keeps proposing some crazy formats. Before that decision needs to be made, the SEC needs to determine what their conference schedule will look like in 2026. That […]
The College Football Playoff format for the 2026 schedule still has not been determined. That remains in limbo with a Dec. 1 deadline set while the Big Ten keeps proposing some crazy formats. Before that decision needs to be made, the SEC needs to determine what their conference schedule will look like in 2026.
That could be locked in next week. Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reports that there is meeting scheduled for next week where the SEC athletic directors will discuss the conference scheduling model. All sign point to the league staying at eight games in 2026.
Notable: SEC ADs are scheduled for a regularly scheduled gathering next week over several agenda items, including the 8 vs. 9 conference game debate.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) August 16, 2025
As reported last month, the league continues to lean toward remaining at 8 games, which could keep the CFP at 12 teams in 2026https://t.co/OG422kAILm
Kentucky recently added Kent State to their 2026 non-conference schedule. Why is this important to know? Because it means that the Wildcats have four non-conference games locked in for next season. The Wildcats cannot play nine conference games if they are playing four team in non-conference play. The Cats will host Youngstown State (Sept. 5), Kent State (Sept. 12), South Alabama (Sept. 26), and Louisville (Nov. 28).
Who will the conference opponents be? That is something we should hopefully learn over the next couple of months. The SEC got rid of divisions in 2024 but kept a rotating home-and-home schedule where opponents did not change in 2025. It seems unlikely that will occur in 2026. How the league schedules in 2026 is still an unknown.
“Eight is better for Kentucky”
KSR asked Kentucky Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart about where everything stood with the future conference format on media day at Kroger Field at the beginning of August. The soon to be dean of college athletic directors did not hold back is thoughts on the matter.
“There’s no mystery in where I standard on eight-nine. Eight is better for Kentucky. We’ll have the athletic directors in our league, obviously there’s financial components to it,” Barnhart said. “There’s competitive components to it. There’s components to it as it relates to our ability to have seven home games or eight home games.”
“We’ve been fortunate about every two-plus years we’ve been able to have eight home games because (deputy athletics director) Marc Hill does an unbelievable job of scheduling with our football staff of putting things together for us to be able to have eight home football games. If we have nine conference games, the chances of doing something like that get a little bit harder for us. So the eight-nine conversation is difficult, and it’s a good conversation in the room. There’s an economic component as it relates to television for sure.”
Kentucky remains all-in on the eight-game model. That structure should be safe for one more year.
Category: General Sports
