The SEC is expected to announce a conference schedule of eight games for the 2025 season on Wednesday, according to a report from 247Sports.
That reporting is in line with the most recent public comments on the scorching-hot-button topic, which came from Texas AD Chris Del Conte on Valentine's Day.
“We have eight games scheduled right now,” Del Conte, via Inside Texas. “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 number of intra-conference SEC games has been one of the longest-running, and most nauseating, debates in college football.
The Pac-10 (RIP) began playing a 9-game, round-robin schedule in 2006. The Big 12 adopted a 9-game schedule when its membership dropped to 10 in 2011, and continued playing nine after reviving its championship game in 2017. The Big Ten moved to nine in 2016. The ACC and the SEC are the last holdouts among the power conferences.
The SEC's policy is so controversial because the conference is so dominant.
SEC critics argue the conference artificially inflates the rankings of its mid- and lower-tier teams by playing fewer league games than it should. An SEC team is bound to lose when Ole Miss plays Kentucky, but not when Ole Miss plays Central Arkansas and Kentucky faces Youngstown State.
The 8-game slate also has plenty of critics within the conference, as well. Georgia has still yet to visit Kyle Field, despite allegedly playing in the same conference with Texas A&M since 2012.
The incoming additions of Texas and Oklahoma is widely viewed as an opportunity for SEC schools to play each other more often. A 3-6 model would allow every SEC team to play one another once every other year, while also preserving every important rivalry game.
A 1-7 model would also pit each SEC team against each other every other year but, as the name implies, would also preserve only one annual matchup. If Alabama plays Auburn every year, under a 1-7 model it can then only play Tennessee semi-annually. Same for Texas with Oklahoma and Texas A&M, Ole Miss with LSU and Mississippi State, and so on.
The SEC already kicked the can down the road for 2024, arranging their 8-game schedule so that every primary and secondary rivalry will be played this fall. (All of the above games will happen in '24.)
But if the second part of the 1-7 model kicks in for 2025, that means (for example) Alabama can't play Auburn and Tennessee and one of the seven off-cycle schools it misses in 2024.
And if that happens, the SEC will officially be one step down the road of continuing the same problem it's had since its 2012 expansion. All in the name of securing more Music City Bowl berths.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
Update: The SEC will keep the same format as 2024, with opponents flipping locations. This will preserve secondary games like Texas-Texas A&M, Alabama-Tennessee and others, while other formerly annual matchups like Georgia-South Carolina and Auburn-Ole Miss will go at least two years between games.