Chris Del Conte 'applying constant heat' in favor of 9-game SEC schedule

Last year, during the SEC’s spring meetings, conference officials discussed the idea of moving to a nine-game league schedule. They ultimately chose to stay at eight games, but those conversations appear to be starting up again – and Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte has a strong opinion.

Del Conte said he’s very much in favor of moving to nine conference games. His reason is simple. Texas plays a neutral-site game at the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry, and adding a ninth league matchup would make it a perfect four-and-four split between home and road games.

Del Conte said he continues to apply pressure on his counterparts about adding another conference game. Discussions will go on throughout the offseason as the SEC weighs its next steps.

“I prefer nine games,” Del Conte said Wednesday during a town hall. “Why? Because we play Oklahoma at a neutral site. So one year, we get four games. One year, we get three. If we had a nine-game schedule, four and four, we’d play our rival at a neutral site.

“It’s like Bengay or an atomic bomb. I’m applying constant heat on this particular subject with our friends in the SEC, that we need a ninth game. We’ll see if that happens, but we’re working towards that.”

Nine-game SEC schedule back on the table

The sense is some athletic directors in the SEC are “re-thinking” the idea of a nine-game schedule after last week’s meeting. The SEC considered the move last season, but held off as Texas and Oklahoma entered the league.

College Football Playoff expansion also played a role in the decision to wait, commissioner Greg Sankey said during last year’s spring meetings. The expectation was conversations would start again this year.

As officials from the SEC met with their Big Ten counterparts last week, a nine-game slate appears to be back on the table. Sankey pointed out there’s “a lot of interest” in such a move as the college football landscape continues to evolve.

The 2024 season marked the first of the 12-team College Football Playoff after a decade with a four-team format. Ahead of the new-look bracket, Sankey spoke with Paul Finebaum about how the revamped model would impact future scheduling conversations with both SEC members, as well as ESPN and ABC – the league’s media partners.

“We said, back in the summer, that that decision becomes, essentially, first quarter of 2025 because we go through a 16-team, eight-game, single-division, if you will, format … with an expanded Playoff and wanting to know how the selection committee evaluates our teams in the current format,” Sankey said in December. “We’re still on that course.

“We include our media partner in that conversation. We want to evaluate bowl eligibility because that’s important to a number of our programs, and that will be an early 2025 point of focus for us.”