SEC Likely to Maintain Eight-Game Football Schedule for 2025 Season, But Shift to Nine Games Looms

The SEC is likely to stay with an eight-game football schedule for the 2025 season, but that could be the final year before going to nine games, according to Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte who was speaking at a town hall event Tuesday night.

“We have eight games scheduled right now,” Del Conte said, according to InsideTexas.com. “We’re working on going to a nine-game schedule, but we have a ways to go with that. I would say this year we have an eight-game schedule. The following year, we have another eight-game schedule. Then we’ll look at going into a nine-game conference schedule.”

The main news there would be the SEC sticking with an eight-game schedule for the 2025 season. There was no confirmation from the SEC office or anyone else at the conference. Several conference sources emphasized to The Athletic that there has been no official decision either way on the 2025 season or beyond.

But indications are the SEC does not want to have its annual meetings in Destin, Fla., this May be dominated by another debate about the future schedule format. The conference could announce well before that it’s going with an eight-game schedule for 2025, then make a decision later for 2026 and beyond.

When Texas and Oklahoma announced they were joining the league a few years ago, the momentum was toward going to a nine-game schedule. But that momentum stalled mainly because ESPN did not agree to increase its payout to the conference in exchange for adding a ninth game. At last year’s spring meetings, the SEC announced it would keep an eight-game schedule for the 2024 season — the first for Texas and Oklahoma — postponing a long-term decision on whether to go to nine. This will mean postponing the decision again, even as Del Conte’s comments indicate there is new momentum towards going to nine.

Why wait for a decision?

The biggest reason is money. Even schools that favor a nine-game schedule, such as Georgia, have wanted ESPN to increase its payout in exchange. The television contract, which was signed about six months before Oklahoma and Texas announced they were joining, just has a pro rata clause, which means the payout goes up by an equal amount to what the current 14 schools were getting. SEC officials have argued that eight more conference games — the result of going to a nine-game schedule — are worth more money. But ESPN, dealing with Disney-ordered cutbacks, has so far not agreed.

This week, however, came the news that ESPN had agreed to pay for the rights to the expanded College Football Playoff for 2026 and beyond. It’s not clear whether that has any impact on its discussions with the SEC.

There is another reason for the SEC to punt: It can see if only playing an eight-game schedule helps or hurts its teams for the 12-team CFP when the Big Ten and other conferences are playing nine games.

How would rivalries be impacted?

There have been two formats under discussion: In the eight-game format, every team would have one permanent rivalry and rotate everyone else. In the nine-game format, every team would have three teams it plays every year and rotate everyone else. In both formats, everybody plays everybody else at least twice every four years.

The downside of an eight-game schedule is traditional rivalries that wouldn’t be played every year: Auburn and Georgia or Alabama and Tennessee, for instance. While Texas-Texas A&M was considered one of those, Del Conte also said Tuesday night that the Longhorns would play the Aggies every year. It could be Oklahoma and Texas that wouldn’t be played every year if an eight-game schedule were adopted.

This year, while the SEC stayed with eight games, it kept those traditional rivalries as rotating games. That could be done again in 2025. Then, presumably, the rivalries would stay intact if the conference went to a nine-game schedule starting in 2026. Or the rivalries would go to a non-annual basis if the conference sticks with eight.

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(Photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)

2024-02-15 01:24:07
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