Conference realignment put Greg Sankey and the SEC schedule makers in a grinder when they added Oklahoma and Texas. A conference that was previously scheduled with east and west divisions in mind, while keeping historic rivalries at the forefront of the conference landscape, had to make some adjustments ahead of the 2024 season.
As SEC media days begin on Monday in Atlanta, Sankey and conference decision makers are still trying to work out the details for the future of the SEC scheduling. It’s not a simple task, and there isn’t a simple answer. However, some delineation of the teams is necessary.
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The current debate that has to be resolved first is whether or not the league moves to nine conference games like the Big Ten. Most in the SEC are in favor of the eight-conference-game format. Adding a ninth conference game puts a strain on head coaches and programs’ ability to make a bowl game. While the bowls have lost a little bit of their luster over the last 25 years, it’s still an important benchmark for teams. And in the revenue-sharing era, an important payday as well.
But if they stick with eight conference games, they’ll need to improve their scheduling system. These first two years of the 16-team SEC have put programs like Oklahoma and Florida at a disadvantage with two of the most difficult schedules in the nation, while Texas and Missouri play schedules that make their path to the College Football Playoff a bit more manageable.
Moving to eight-team divisions or a quad format would allow the league to create more symmetry in scheduling. One of the reasons the conferences moved away from the divisional formats was the four-team College Football Playoff and the fear that teams would get left out of the playoff by losing the conference title game. It happened from time to time in the four-team playoff era. But in an expanded playoff, a team can lose their conference title game and still make the playoff.
With the playoff expanding to 12 and likely to go to 16 teams by 2026, there isn’t as much of a need for pitting the two with the best records against each other. Because there is so much scheduling disparity, there’s no guarantee that the two teams that make the conference title game are the two best teams. Only an assumption based on record. But if the conference were to go to back to divisions, there’d be more common opponents that could help decide it on the field.
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Another positive byproduct would allow a team that may not be in the College Football Playoff hunt due to nonconference losses to still have a shot at making the playoff by winning their division and then the conference title game. That’s the part that makes March Madness so fun. Teams that wouldn’t have a shot at making the tournament get one by winning their conference tournaments. The SEC could create the same dynamic by going back to divisions.
There may not be an answer provided at SEC media days, but it will be one of the major points of discussion this week.
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Future of SEC scheduling should reconsider divisions
