It's not the end of the world but the SEC's 2024 stop-gap, eight-game schedule deserves all its flak

The SEC will have 16 teams in 2024, but the conference will not play a nine-game schedule next season after agreeing to an eight-game, stop-gap solution Thursday at the 2023 SEC Spring Meetings. 

This is stupid. 

Greg Sankey can’t say as much, which is why the league’s commissioner attempted to put lipstick on a pig after the league’s Presidents agreed to continue kicking the can down the road on any longterm schedule solutions. 

“Over time nobody’s shying away from anything,” said Sankey, covering for the very schools in the SEC who were shying away from playing a nine-game schedule because they continue to clutch their precious pearls for bowl eligibility in the Year of 2023. 

“We just didn’t add another game during a period of transition,” Sankey added. 

“If you’re that impatient, I’m glad you’re not leading a conference.”

It’s not about impatience. It’s about sensibility.

In a 16-team league, one with Texas and Oklahoma, an eight-game schedule guarantees fewer marquee matchups. One with more P5 vs. G5 games fans don’t really want to see versus SEC on SEC action.  

Imagine during that one week every November if suddenly Ole Miss replaced Alcon State with Tennessee, or Florida ditched Florida A&M for Texas A&M. 

Well, that won’t happen in 2024. It could’ve. Fans would’ve loved it. TV ratings would absolutely be better. But now it can’t happen. 

It’s not a complete disaster because the league intends to protect as many secondaries rivalries as possible, so in all likelihood, Auburn and Georgia will still happen in 2024. Same for Tennessee-Alabama, which as taken place every fall since 1927. 

But what about Alabama-LSU? Florida-Tennessee? Texas-Arkansas? It’s not a given that the league can protect all these matchups in an eight-game format that will weigh the last 10 years of winning percentages to create a “fair and balanced” metric to create a schedule. 

“We’re going to honor traditional rivalries,” Sankey noted.

“We understand the priorities in there. We are excited about those priorities.”

But with an eight-game schedule (nominally with just a single main rivalry opponent), the margins for specific matchups are smaller. 

Again, if this is just a one-off deal, then it’s a poor look for the conference that loves to (deservedly) puff its chest about being biggest, baddest and toughest league in college football. 

But it’s still a poor look. And a bad process.  

“Nobody wants to go through this every year,” Sankey said. 

Folks sure don’t, but considering Thursday’s outcome, it’s no guarantee that the league will agree on a longterm format after debating various models for the last 18 months. 

Schools wanting more money from ESPN makes total sense. The league agreed on its 10-year contract before OU and Texas agreed to join the conference. The concerns over the College Football Playoff seem misguided, but is at least are an unknown variable. 

But the “discomfort” Sankey referenced in canceling 14 non-conference games is bullocks. 

I’m sure it would be complicated and frustrating, but it’s not an impossible task. And that’s also why these schools AD and administers are so well-compensated! 

“Creating a one-year schedule will provide a longer on-ramp to manage football scheduling around existing non-conference commitments of our members,” Sankey said. 

“It will also provide additional time to understand the impact of an expanded College Football Playoff and engage with our media partners as we determine the appropriate long-term plan for SEC football scheduling. 

“During this time of change, our fans will continue to enjoy traditional rivalries and begin to see new matchups presented by the addition of two historically successful football programs to the SEC.”

Greg Sankey is the most powerful commissioner in college sports, yet he let a group of Presidents, many of whom represent the lower-level teams in the league, dictate direction of the SEC’s schedule — even if it’s only for one year.

The Georgias and LSUs of the league weren’t pinning for fewer competitive games. Yet the majority of the conference united to stop the most sensible and — MOST IMPORTANTLY ENTERTAINING — outcome. 

After years of advocating for a nine-game SEC schedule, Nick Saban flipped his stance on the idea after expressing frustration with Alabama’s three rumored annual rivals (Auburn, Tennessee and LSU), and tide in the vote shifted from the nine-game model, which was once considered a formality outcome, to Thursday’s eight-game solution. 

It didn’t have to end up this way. Hopefully, it won’t happen again when these Presidents actually vote on a longterm solution.