SEC football schedules by divisions will be eliminated when Texas, Oklahoma join

SEC football schedules by divisions will be eliminated when Texas, Oklahoma join in 2025

Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey said Thursday that SEC football plans to eliminate its two-division structure for scheduling once Texas and Oklahoma join the conference on July 1, 2025.

The SEC currently consists of two seven-team divisions, East and West. Oklahoma and Texas, which will become two of the westernmost schools in the conference, make continuing that system a challenge for schedules.

Sankey said the SEC is waiting on other factors, like potential College Football Playoff expansion and the Big Ten media agreement, to make final scheduling decisions. The Big Ten has also expanded west, adding current Pac-12 members Southern California and UCLA for 2024.

Sankey did not elaborate on whether that also means that divisions would stop being used for conference standings. The East and West division champions currently meet in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. This year's matchup is between Georgia and LSU on Saturday, Dec. 4.

Sankey said the 2025 schedule and beyond will likely be conference-wide, allowing for programs that have never met to play. He noted that during the 2022 football season, Missouri traveled to Auburn for the first time since joining the conference in 2012.

?We right now are not thinking about maintaining a two-division format for football scheduling in the SEC,? Sankey said. "It would potentially be one single division with the idea that we want to rotate our teams through our campuses more frequently. We have big brands with big interest and large following ... that want to go to places like Fayetteville, Arkansas or have their fans come to Columbia, South Carolina."

Sankey said the move to do away with divisions is encouraged by the conference's success during the 2020 season, during which SEC teams played all 10 games against conference foes due to COVID-19 restrictions. Each team plays eight conference matchups per season under the current system, but Sankey that could increase to nine after expansion.

"During the pandemic we played 10 conference games and had on our SEC Network the highest viewership we had ever experienced," Sankey said. "We drew people in by playing each other with greater frequency."

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I love going to 9 games. There's too many snooze fest weekends now

Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Texas A&M as our permanent 3 while rotating 6 of the other 12 for a 9-game schedule. I'm fairly confident about that.

I would be happy to do 5/5 for 10 games if every other conference did too. I liked the setup of 2020.

Why not keep the 2 divisions - add Texas/OU to the West and move Alabama/Auburn to the East. We can still get rid of the snooze fest games and schedule more East division teams in a rotation!

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Originally Posted by Quaoarsking

Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Texas A&M as our permanent 3 while rotating 6 of the other 12 for a 9-game schedule. I'm fairly confident about that.

I would be happy to do 5/5 for 10 games if every other conference did too. I liked the setup of 2020.

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Now Q I like that wishful thinking but you know we are going to have OM, Bama and LSU.

"Highest viewership we had ever experienced"

....because nobody was at the games

Overthinking again

This is not a good idea

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Originally Posted by parabrave

Now Q I like that wishful thinking but you know we are going to have OM, Bama and LSU.

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We won't. Neither Alabama nor LSU want us, and the SEC is going to want big marquee games to be annual contests.

I welcome any new format as long as we don't play bama for another 117 years in a row!

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Originally Posted by Quaoarsking

We won't. Neither Alabama nor LSU want us, and the SEC is going to want big marquee games to be annual contests.

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It's my theory that Bama, LSU and UGA to name a few, want to play MSU, UK, Vandy etc. Thry want to play the less talented conference teams because it assures them a playoff spot. UGA doesn't want to add difficulty to their schedule with adding Bama and LSU.

HOWEVER! TV wants those matchups. Hopefully tv makes the Bama and UGA etc schedules more difficult and we begin to see college football make some big moves to really change or correct parity.

Maybe we get vandy, SC, and OM and rotate rest. Heck, I wouldn't really mind 3 from OM, arky, TX or OK. Jimbo has implied he wanted us in their 3.

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Originally Posted by Maroonthirteen

It's my theory that Bama, LSU and UGA to name a few, want to play MSU, UK, Vandy etc. Thry want to play the less talented conference teams because it assures them a playoff spot. UGA doesn't want to add difficulty to their schedule with adding Bama and LSU.

HOWEVER! TV wants those matchups. Hopefully tv makes the Bama and UGA etc schedules more difficult and we begin to see college football make some big moves to really change or correct parity.

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Georgia definitely gets Auburn and Florida as 2 of theirs. Basically a 100% of that. I project South Carolina for their 3rd, but it could be Kentucky or Vanderbilt.

I project Auburn getting Vanderbilt as its third to make up for Alabama and Georgia being its other 2, and that Vanderbilt doesn't have any obvious "big boy" to match up with.

At first glance, it seems like it'd be a scheduling nightmare with lots of room for criticism of some schools getting easy schedules, some getting more difficult.

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Originally Posted by msstate7

I love going to 9 games. There's too many snooze fest weekends now

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As long as they do away with the mandatory P5 game. I don't like the SEC telling us how to schedule OOC because Florida has a rivalry with Florida State and Saban wants to play some blueblood in a Kickoff Classic

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Quaoarsking

Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Texas A&M as our permanent 3 while rotating 6 of the other 12 for a 9-game schedule. I'm fairly confident about that.

I would be happy to do 5/5 for 10 games if every other conference did too. I liked the setup of 2020.

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Pretty sure those are going to be our three permanant.

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Originally Posted by Extendedcab

Why not keep the 2 divisions - add Texas/OU to the West and move Alabama/Auburn to the East. We can still get rid of the snooze fest games and schedule more East division teams in a rotation!

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Because then you don't get 7-5 Mizzou playing 12-0 Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Basically assures the best two teams make it every year.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maroonthirteen

It's my theory that Bama, LSU and UGA to name a few, want to play MSU, UK, Vandy etc. Thry want to play the less talented conference teams because it assures them a playoff spot. UGA doesn't want to add difficulty to their schedule with adding Bama and LSU.

HOWEVER! TV wants those matchups. Hopefully tv makes the Bama and UGA etc schedules more difficult and we begin to see college football make some big moves to really change or correct parity.

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The truth is we're the same as South Carolina, Kentucky or Ole Miss to Alabama. I don't think they really care if we're on the schedule or not.

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Originally Posted by RocketDawg

At first glance, it seems like it'd be a scheduling nightmare with lots of room for criticism of some schools getting easy schedules, some getting more difficult.

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I'm sure we will get some easier schedules some- like we did in 1998 and 1999. I'm sure we'll have a gauntlet some and most of the time will be somewhere in the middle.

I do think getting Alabama off of our schedule every year would help us out. It gives us a better chance at a special season. Also, I want to play teams like Georgia and Vanderbilt more. Gives us a chance to play the rest of the league more than ever.

We will have to have a really good team just to make a bowl with 9 conference games. Lol

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Originally Posted by Bothrops

We will have to have a really good team just to make a bowl with 9 conference games. Lol

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We'll need to be 3-6, but the rotating schedule with more East teams annually, and only playing Alabama and LSU half the time (hopefully 1 each rather than 2/0 alternating) will make that easier to achieve.

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Originally Posted by BulldogBear

"Highest viewership we had ever experienced"

....because nobody was at the games

Overthinking again

This is not a good idea

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Not sure if it's a good idea or not, but if it's based off the viewership that year, that is ignorant.

https://scottsmith81.files.wordpress...tron-com-8.gif

Should be a 5 - 2 (of 4) - 2 (of 6) model would be better. They need to think outside the box on this. It will make for more compelling games.

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Originally Posted by Bothrops

We will have to have a really good team just to make a bowl with 9 conference games. Lol

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3-0 OOC. 3-6 or 4-5 in SEC to go 6-6 or 7-5. Low expectations either way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maroonthirteen

It's my theory that Bama, LSU and UGA to name a few, want to play MSU, UK, Vandy etc. Thry want to play the less talented conference teams because it assures them a playoff spot. UGA doesn't want to add difficulty to their schedule with adding Bama and LSU.

HOWEVER! TV wants those matchups. Hopefully tv makes the Bama and UGA etc schedules more difficult and we begin to see college football make some big moves to really change or correct parity.

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Georgia is about to have auburn to worry about every year once Kiffin gets there.