What’s behind the SEC’s schedule decision and what does it mean
With the SEC expanding to 16 teams for the 2024 season, when Texas and Oklahoma officially join the conference, there has been much debate over the schedule format, specifically whether to continue playing eight league games or instead play nine.
The league finally made a decision at its spring meetings, sticking with an eight-game format for 2024 while keeping its options open after that. The 2024 opponents will be released June 14.
We asked our college football insiders to explain the ramifications of the decision for the SEC and beyond, and to weigh in on the move, including their takes on who benefits from the decision and who gets hurt by it.
Why eight games instead of nine?
Chris Low: Even though SEC commissioner Greg Sankey indicated several times his preference was to play nine conference games, there wasn’t a consensus among the rest of the schools. With the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams in 2024, there was concern among some regarding how playing a ninth SEC game could affect a two-loss or three-loss team’s chances of making the playoff. Also, Alabama wasn’t ready to sign off on having to play Auburn, LSU and Tennessee as its three permanent foes in a nine-game schedule. Some presidents cited concerns over player safety with an extra conference game, while others in the SEC didn’t see the need to expand to nine games, especially with the conference dominating the sport the way it has for the past two decades. In other words, “Why fix it if it ain’t broke.”
Another concern was that some schools said they would have to buy their way out of nonconference games already scheduled for the 2024 season if a ninth SEC game were added. And let’s not forget perhaps the major factor: SEC schools would like to see rights holder ESPN kick in more money for an extra conference game with Oklahoma and Texas joining the league in 2024, according to multiple sources within the conference.
Which schools were pushing for eight and which were pushing for nine?
Low: Texas A&M was the school most aggressively pushing to play nine games. Florida, Georgia, LSU and Missouri also publicly favored nine games, while some schools remained on the fence. Alabama’s Nick Saban had long been a proponent for playing nine games but wasn’t on board with the Tide having to play Auburn, LSU and Tennessee every year because he felt that would create an uneven playing field if other teams’ permanent foes weren’t as strong. Kentucky and South Carolina were among the teams in favor of eight. Kentucky cited having to already play rival Louisville every year out of conference, and South Carolina’s concerns were similar. The Gamecocks face Clemson every year out of conference.
What will cause the league to go to nine games in 2025?
Low: In short, more money. If ESPN were to throw in additional revenue for a ninth game, it would be extremely difficult for schools to turn that down, according to multiple sources within the SEC.
Also, waiting to see how the expanded CFP field looks in terms of rewarding strength of schedule could play a role. If schools see the selection committee prioritize quality wins over the number of losses, that might help push the nine-game conference schedule over the finish line.
What are the next steps? Is a nine-game conference schedule inevitable?
Low: Nothing like continuing to kick the can down the road, or as Sankey himself said, continuing to circle the airport. Call it what you want — a temporary schedule, a bridge schedule or a stopgap schedule — but it’s pretty clear the SEC is buying a little more time to navigate its way to playing nine conference games. Surely, by 2025, they can figure it out after Oklahoma and Texas have been in the league for a season. Sankey doesn’t lack patience. It’s a big part of what makes him such an effective leader. Nine games are coming to the conference that has won 13 of the past 17 national championships. We’ll all just have to wait a little while longer to see it happen.
Who benefits the most with the decision to stay with eight conference games?
Alex Scarborough: Even though fans would have benefited most with the nine-game conference schedule, the division-less format will still be a win for fans and players. It means they’ll get to see every SEC team twice during a four-year stretch — home and away. And with Texas and Oklahoma joining the league, that means they won’t have to wait as long as they would have in the past to visit Austin and Norman for the first time.
Low: The eight-game schedule helps those teams that might be on the bubble when it comes to winning six games and qualifying for a bowl game. And in a 12-team playoff, the chances of the upper-tier teams having fewer losses are greater if they’re having to play eight conference games as opposed to nine. Also, those schools already facing challenging nonconference games against in-state rivals (Florida vs. Florida State, South Carolina vs. Clemson and Kentucky vs. Louisville) are probably better off not having to play a ninth SEC game.
Ryan McGee: The Group of 5. Open dates on SEC calendars mean, at least in theory, chances for booking games with big schools for the mid-majors looking to beef up their CFP chances. How better for Coastal Carolina, Boise State or the like to get the attention of the committee than to be able to point to Week 3 and say, “Hey, we went to Auburn and had them on the ropes for 3½ quarters!”
Harry Lyles Jr.: The teams that had previous engagements locked in benefit the most with sticking with eight for now. Getting out of some of those games doesn’t sound like a fun proposition.
As far as the bigger picture, I don’t think there’s all that much to SEC teams getting docked by the CFP if they stick with eight games. Much to Sankey’s point, this has been the strongest league for a while now, and I don’t think one fewer conference game is going to make anybody feel much differently about the strength of the teams at the top. And even if that fear exists, there’s room to book games as needed. We saw how quickly that can get done during the pandemic.
Who is hurt most by the decision?
Scarborough: It isn’t exactly a positive reflection on the SEC that the commissioner clearly favors a nine-game conference schedule and he can’t get the votes. It might not be best for every school on an individual level, but it’s what’s best for the league as a whole (and its fans), and that should have been enough to get it done now.
McGee: I don’t know … accountants? I get the need for a level playing field/résumé among Power 5 conferences, but do we really think that this will hurt the SEC’s chances of making an expanded CFP?
What would the impact be of not playing some of the league’s rivalry games every year?
Low: A short-term schedule that calls for eight conference games would likely still allow for long-standing rivalries such as Auburn vs. Georgia and Alabama vs. Tennessee to be played without a break. But if an eight-game schedule is locked in for several years, then we wouldn’t see Auburn and Georgia playing every year or Alabama and Tennessee every year, which would be a kick in the face to the rich history of the SEC.
McGee: It became a thing over the past several years to start questioning the necessity of Tennessee-Alabama or other rivalry games because they had become lopsided, but you cannot allow yourself to become a prisoner of the moment. A decade of oh-fer on one side of a matchup doesn’t cancel out a century-plus of games, nor does the inconvenience of having a tough schedule because you’re a classic program and the teams you play and have always played happen to be really good (sorry, Nick!).
The SEC was built on history and regional rivalries and the classics have to be protected. Period. See: Tennessee-Bama last fall. When you get away from those, you get away from what made you who you are. So much weird change is inevitable in the expansion/realignment/transfer portal era; it should be countered by digging a preemptive moat around what you can. Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, Third Saturday in October, Earth’s Largest Outdoor Libation Soiree (since we can’t call it the cocktail party), Red River Rivalry, Clean Old Fashioned Hate, the Palmetto Bowl, any game with history and a real nickname, in-conference and cross-conference, needs to be taken care of. Any other plan is abandoning the sport’s roots.
Lyles: I think my elders have covered everything here. The only thing I would add: These games help form the fabric of society in this part of the country, up there with religious and national holidays. They are the games that keep everyone coming back to college football, and we’ve seen how taking away rivalries has gone in the past in other parts of the country. I would be shocked if the SEC went away from that in the long term.
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Dan Wetzel
Any Given Sunday. That’s pro football’s mantra about how even the league’s worst team is capable of beating its best.
The NFL’s average margin of victory this season: 10.8 points.
The average margin of victory in Southeastern Conference games this season? Try 10.03.
Parity — at least a measure of it — has come to college football. It’s a byproduct of the transfer portal, NIL and direct revenue-sharing. Anybody can be good these days … or at least good enough for one game.
Any Given Saturday.
Ancient Heismans in a trophy case and conference championship banners on the wall won’t hurt a program’s recruiting, but they sure don’t matter as much as they used to. This is about transactions, not tradition. The talent has spread.
In the top 10, the Associated Press poll features Indiana (2), Georgia Tech (7) and Vanderbilt (10).
Meanwhile, Penn State, Florida, Arkansas and UCLA have each already fired their coach this season. The mood also isn’t great at Florida State, Auburn, LSU or Wisconsin. There are even grumbles at 3-3 Clemson (among many others).
College football has never been this competitive, this wild — or this interesting. The fun isn’t being hoarded by a few super powers. The good teams aren’t as good and the bad teams aren’t as bad. The chase for the playoff now runs dozens of teams deep. Seasons can swing on a dime.
Two Saturdays ago, Arizona State lost to Utah by 32 points. Last Saturday, a sold-out stadium of Sun Devils stormed the field to celebrate beating then-No. 7 Texas Tech 26-22 and keeping ASU’s playoff hopes alive.
It’s fantastic.
It also has left college football in a strange place, caught between two eras.
In an earlier era, major programs that have invested heavily for generations are expected to beat the teams they have always beaten. Losses to non-name brands have traditionally been a sign of a failed operation with no hope for the future.
For example, two weeks ago Penn State should have handled a 3-2 Northwestern team the way the Nittany Lions once defeated 34 consecutive unranked opponents under James Franklin.
But we’ve entered a new day when just about any team can put together a strong roster on the fly. Even if those schools don’t surge up the polls as Indiana and others have, they can at least be competitive enough to beat you.
A new, active dollar, with money sent directly to players (or invested in top-line scouting) is more valuable than the old, passive dollar that paid for fancy locker rooms.
The result: Northwestern 22, Penn State 21. One of the difference-makers for Northwestern wasn’t a former five-star recruit, but Griffin Wilde, who caught seven passes for 94 yards and a touchdown. He arrived this season as a transfer … from South Dakota State.
Compounding everything is that programs of all sizes have asked their boosters to fund rosters, and that brings new expectations. It’s one thing to absorb a perceived bad loss when you’ve paid for a ticket to the game. It’s another when you’re helping to pay the quarterback. Rolled heads are demanded, ASAP.
Hence, Penn State fired Franklin despite his 104-45 record at the school.
Was Franklin’s dismissal justified? Or Billy Napier at Florida, or Sam Pittman at Arkansas, or Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State, or so on and so on thus far?
Sure. You get paid like these guys, you have to deliver. High salaries, high stakes. There is no such thing as “fair.”
Part of what makes college football great is that it is hardwired to reject patience and perspective, even if patient might be the exact thing programs need to be. No one was calling for Andy Reid’s job in Kansas City when the Chiefs started 0-2.
Yet here in late October, almost anyone not still in the playoff chase is thinking about canning their coach. Even a few who clearly can win the national title aren’t far removed from such discussions — do we have to fire up “The Paul Finebaum Show” from last month after Alabama lost to Florida State?
Regime change costs a fortune, yet it happens anyway. Penn State is on the hook for as much as $49 million for discarding Franklin. If Florida State cuts Mike Norvell, it owes $50 million-plus. He led the Seminoles to a 13-0 regular season in 2023. They are 5-15 since. Norvell is 44 years old. The last time Florida State won an ACC game, he was 42.
Castles crumble that fast these days.
Not everyone can win, but everyone thinks they should.
Not only are there not enough great coaches out there, and no one, in this system, can even say what makes a great coach. Old attributes such as recruiting charm or multiyear program development matter less. In-game strategy and talent identification matters more.
The margins are thin. The buyouts are huge. Half the sport is upside down.
Welcome to the chaos. Enjoy the show.
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Andrea Adelson
Clemson leading receiver Bryant Wesco Jr. will miss the rest of the season after sustaining a back injury against SMU this past weekend.
Coach Dabo Swinney said Monday that Wesco had a “very serious” back injury but did not disclose more details. Wesco was injured on a punt return, when he landed almost directly on his head/neck area after a low tackle sent him somersaulting in the air upside down.
Though he got up and walked to the sideline on his own, he never returned to the field and was taken to the hospital in Greenville, South Carolina, for further evaluation.
Swinney said Wesco was released from the hospital Monday and was resting at home, and that the injury could have been far worse.
“It was a very, very scary injury, and the doctors did an amazing job,” Swinney said in a teleconference with local reporters.
“The doctors are very confident he’ll make a full recovery. Definitely something that’ll keep him out the rest of this season, but thankful that all indications are he’s going to be OK. Just a real blessing for that.”
Wesco leads Clemson with 31 catches for 537 yards and six touchdowns. He thanked those who sent him prayers on his Instagram stories Monday.
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Mark Schlabach
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban said he isn’t surprised by the recent string of high-profile firings in college football because fans and alumni who donate money to programs now are more influential than ever because of name, image and likeness, and revenue sharing.
There have already been nine in-season firings at FBS schools this season, including six at programs in Power 4 conferences.
“You know, I’m not [surprised] because everybody’s raising money to pay players,” Saban said. “So, the people that are giving the money think they have a voice and they’re just like a bunch of fans. When they get frustrated and disappointed, they put pressure on the [athletics directors] to take action, and it’s the way of the world.”
On Sunday, Florida fired Billy Napier, who was 22-23 in four seasons. The Gators owe Napier about $21 million, with half of that buyout due within 30 days. The remainder will be paid in three annual installments starting next summer.
Penn State owes former coach James Franklin roughly $49 million after it fired him on Oct. 12. It’s the second-biggest buyout in college football history behind only Jimbo Fisher’s $76 million buyout from Texas A&M following his firing in 2023.
“It’s unfair as hell,” Saban, now an ESPN analyst, told Franklin during the fired coach’s appearance on “College GameDay” last Saturday. “For you to go to the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, get to the final four [of the CFP], come out being ranked [No. 2] this year — an expectation that you created by what you accomplished at Penn State — and for those people not to show enough appreciation for that and gratitude for all the hard work that you did, I’m saying it’s unfair.”
Some of what the Nittany Lions owe Franklin, whose teams had a 104-45 record in his 11-plus seasons, might be offset by his salary at his next coaching job.
Sam Pittman (Arkansas), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), DeShaun Foster (UCLA) and Brent Pry (Virginia Tech) also were let go this season.
Foster, Gundy, Pittman and Pry were fired before October.
Stanford fired Troy Taylor on March 25 after two outside firms had found he bullied and belittled female athletic staffers and sought to have an NCAA compliance officer removed.
According to reports, the nine schools who have fired their head coaches are on the hook for about $116 million in buyout money, some of which will be offset if they get new jobs.
“It’s really different,” said Saban, who retired from Alabama in January 2024.
“Not in a good way from a developmental standpoint; a good way from a quality-of-life standpoint [for the players]. But we need to find a system that improves the quality of life of players but still focuses on the right stuff — development, getting an education, all those kinds of [things].”
Nine weeks into the 2025 season, the coaching carousel seems far from over. On Monday, Florida State AD Michael Alford said in a statement that a comprehensive review of the football program will occur after the season.
The Seminoles dropped their fourth straight game 20-13 at California on Saturday, to fall to 0-4 in the ACC. FSU has dropped nine straight ACC games going back to the 2024 season.
The Seminoles would owe embattled coach Mike Norvell about $54 million in buyout money. It would cost FSU about $72 million to pay off Norvell and his staff, sources told ESPN’s Andrea Adelson.
Wisconsin‘s Luke Fickell, who has a 15-18 record in his third season with the Badgers, received a vote of confidence from athletics director Chris McIntosh on Monday.
In a letter to Wisconsin fans, McIntosh wrote that the athletics department would make a stronger commitment to the football program and would move ahead with Fickell, who would be owed more than $25 million if he were fired this season.
Auburn‘s Hugh Freeze, Kentucky‘s Mark Stoops, Maryland‘s Mike Locksley, Clemson‘s Dabo Swinney and LSU‘s Brian Kelly are also catching heat after disappointing starts this season.
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