Joel Klatt loves Big Ten scheduling format, calls on SEC to adopt nine-game model

It’s been a busy offseason in college football, in part because major realignment in the Big Ten and the SEC is creeping closer. And while the SEC punted this spring on any real shakeups in the immediate future, the Big Ten scheduling format for 2024 and 2025 was announced.

It has at least one major college football analyst plenty excited.

“I love what the Big Ten did in terms of scheduling,” FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. “I like that they stayed at nine games in the conference. The SEC should absolutely do that. It’s absurd that we don’t play the same schedule makeup across college football.”

What the Big Ten scheduling format did was loosen the typical thought process when it comes to scheduling. Instead of every team being forced to have the same number of games and the same number of permanent annual rivals, schools can have different numbers of annual rivalries.

Instead, the individual rivalries themselves were protected.

The protected games are: Michigan–Ohio State, UCLA–USC, Minnesota–Wisconsin, Indiana–Purdue, Michigan State-Michigan, Iowa-Minnesota, Illinois–Northwestern, Iowa-Nebraska, Maryland–Rutgers, Iowa-Wisconsin and Illinois-Purdue.

The SEC could very well employ a similar strategy down the road as a way to preserve some rivalries.

Of the traditional rivalries potentially on the chopping block depending on what the SEC does are Alabama–LSU, Alabama-Tennessee, Auburn–Georgia and Florida-LSU. Those games wouldn’t necessarily have to disappear if the SEC adopted something close to the Big Ten scheduling format.

“Only fixing one game, like the rivalry game, or maybe a second for some schools, and then allowing the rest of the schedule to float year to year I think is going to help the Big Ten in the long run,” Klatt explained. “It’s going to drive more parity. Now you’re going to have four to five really good schools to get into a 12-team playoff rather than just scheduling so that one team’s undefeated and goes into the BCS or tthe College Football Playoff. So I like what they’ve done from a scheduling standpoint.”

For now, the SEC has decided to play an eight-game schedule in 2024. The league will further evaluate changes in college football before deciding on 2025 and beyond, knowing now the Big Ten scheduling format may be an attractive option.

Opponents for the 2024 season will be announced live on the SEC Network during a primetime show on Wednesday.