Sankey provides update on SEC's potential move to nine-game schedule

USA Today

3 days ago

Oregon won the Big Ten regular-season football title last year with a 9-0 record. Arizona State, Iowa State, Brigham Young and Colorado tied for the Big 12 regular-season title with 7-2 records. Over in the SEC, Texas won the crown during the regular season at 7-1.
Nine plus zero equals nine. Seven plus two equals nine. But seven plus one, that's only eight. And therein lies the problem. The problem as far other conferences see things, anyway.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey spoke Monday at the opening of SEC Football media days from Atlanta about a number of topics, not least of which was where the league stood on increasing its conference schedule from eight games to nine. With the way the College Football Playoff works, an eight-game conference slate provides the SEC an inherent advantage over schools that play a nine-game schedule. Namely, it provides an advantage over the next two most powerful conferences in the sport.
Sankey suggested a decision would be coming around the corner.
"We have to make decisions about the '26 season and adjust," Sankey said. "If we're going to go to nine games, then there have to be games moved or rescheduled. If we stay at eight, probably a little easier on that part of the logistics. Once we make a decision in the conference office, we're pretty much ready to go."
Eight league games are on the slate for the 2025 season, but most SEC teams have only three nonconference opponents scheduled for 2026 and later. Oklahoma, for example, will host Texas-El Paso and New Mexico in 2026 and will also travel to Michigan. The Sooners don't currently have a fourth out-of-league opponent scheduled.
The reason eight games are preferable to nine in the SEC is that a fourth non-league game almost certainly provides an easier opponent than a fellow SEC team would provide. OU is better off playing Kent State, as the Sooners are set to do this season, than, say, Kentucky, even if the Wildcats are considered one of the lesser teams in the SEC. Kent State could more easily be chalked up to a win, thereby potentially giving Oklahoma one more win than its Big Ten or Big 12 counterparts.
As for when the SEC will decide, Sankey suggested the league would take up talks again in league's spring meetings in Destin, Florida.
"If you go back to when we made our last decision, it was in Destin, and two weeks later we had opponents out," he said. "Shortly thereafter, we were prepared with dates and sites sort of thing."
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