Eli Drinkwitz explains why he's strongly in favor of a 9-game SEC football schedule model

During this year’s SEC spring meetings, the conference could decide on how scheduling will be handled in college football, with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma imminent. As the meetings got underway on Tuesday, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz gave his thoughts on two possible schedule models and revealed which one he prefers.

“Well, based on the last information I was given, which the last time it was really discussed at length with the coaches that I’m aware of was last year at this meeting, I’m on the nine-game schedule,” said Drinkwitz. “I like the setup of three permanents. I think the more permanents that you have, the more that you can measure your program against consistent opponents. I also think it preserves the basis of the SEC.

“The Southeastern Conference is the best conference in college football because of its fans and the passion of its fan base. And I think you run the risk of losing that with the short-sightedness of, well, this schedule is not fair for me. It’s not fair for me if I have to play eight.”

The two main possibilities being floated around are a nine and an eight in-conference game schedule. Drinkwitz leans in favor of the nine-game schedule because of what it offers for the SEC fan base — more games against key rivals in the season. Although, the Missouri headman doesn’t think other coaches will see it that way, because of preservation.

“I think the reality of it is preserving the primary and secondary rivalries of this league are important for the league. I think it’s important to the fan base; it’s important now more than ever with the competition for dollars and passion and sports. (If) you move too far away from it; you’re going to open the door for fans to travel to other venues for entertainment.”

“I don’t blame them; most coaches are wired because of the high turnover of our jobs. It’s hard to have any vision other than what’s right in front of us for the next six months. And (I) totally understand that it’ll be more favorable in some instances. My argument is that with one permanent and seven consistent rotating games, there’s not enough consistency in that schedule. And we don’t have enough control over those seven games. I mean, our conference ebbs and flows with teams that are up and down. And so, you may get a year where your seven games you match up with a team that’s having a heck of a run.”

Although Drinkwitz is not in favor of the eight in-conference game schedule, he can see the benefits of that form of schedule. The eight-game model allows programs to reach out to one another within the conference and set up their matchups for the season.

“I don’t know that there’s going to be enough consistency,” he said. “When there’s consistency of your opponents for three straight, you know these are the three teams that I’m gonna play, you can kind of measure yourself and are you improving. Or did I just run into one of the seven teams that were having an unbelievable year and really did well out of the portal?

“If it ends up at eight, I’ve got four non-conference games that we’ll have the ability to control the schedule; (I) totally understand that. But I do think Commissioner Sankey makes a fair point. We’d be the only Power-five school with an eight-game conference schedule. I don’t know if that’s the best look for our league, either.”

There are a number of things for the SEC to consider when breaking down the logistics of the possible scheduling methods with Texas and Oklahoma entering the conference soon. Drinkwitz believes that the nine in-conference game schedule will be the most beneficial to the SEC because it’ll help keep key rivalry games intact. Whether or not you agree with the Missouri head man’s position, the idea of more head-to-head SEC football action would be an exciting possibility.