How the SEC can leverage a 9-game schedule concept for additional money

During last week’s SEC spring meetings, the league announced its plans to go with an eight-game schedule in 2024 as it moves away from the East-West divisional format and adds Oklahoma and Texas. The indications were it might be a tentative decision and not long-term as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said conversations about future models would continue into next offseason.

Could it be a leverage play to get more money with a nine-game model down the road? That very well could be the case. There are multiple factors in play — perhaps none bigger than the new-look College Football Playoff, which is going to 12 teams starting with the 2024 season. Sankey cited that as a reason for the decision to stay at eight games, and there are plenty of unknowns about what it would take to make the expanded field.

On3’s J.D. PicKell offered an idea for how the rest of the decision-making process might play out.

“What I think’s going to happen is if you’re an SEC fan of any SEC school, you are watching very, very closely how the latter part of this playoff, the 12 through nine seeds make the playoff, what their records are,” PicKell said on The Hard Count. “Because if there’s any three-loss team that makes the playoff, it will be from the SEC. But that’s the big question, right? Does a three-loss team make the College Football Playoff?

“In my mind, that’s what it is. Because if it’s three losses, that’s a lot more margin for error than two losses. So if the SEC is saying, ‘We can play nine conference games, still make the College Football Playoff with three losses, we might be in for this thing. Then, maybe, we can we can come to an agreement.’ My feeling is that for a team like an Auburn, who plays Georgia, LSU, Alabama, there’s a conversation around money kind of leading the way here.”

JD PicKell: Making the College Football Playoff ‘pays dividends down the road’ for the SEC

The SEC’s new TV deal with ESPN and ABC kicks in with the 2024 season, as will the Texas and Oklahoma additions — one year earlier than originally planned. ESPN also, as it currently stands, is the exclusive home of the College Football Playoff.

The TV money has a big impact on future conversations, PicKell said. However, the intangible profit from making the CFP will also play a role, especially if three-loss teams make the field.

“Greg Sankey has a great quote. He says, ‘Money will follow. It doesn’t lead,'” PicKell said. “A lot of people are reading that and saying, ‘Oh, yeah, sure. If that’s the case, then why you expand to the playoff?’ That’s fair. That’s a true statement. To the same token, though, the money that comes with making the College Football Playoff in the long term, the exposure, the way that impacts enrollment, the visibility nationally. There’s a lot that comes with making the College Football Playoff that I think pays dividends down the road consistently, maybe more so than just that money you’re getting from the TV deal.

“The TV deal money is huge. Don’t get it twisted. That money from ESPN would be very nice if they were to compensate them for a nine-game conference schedule. But I’m telling you, making the College Football Playoff has a little bit more juice to it, and that’s some juice that keeps on giving in my mind.