Potential Big Ten, SEC scheduling partnership sounds complicated

LSU head coach Brian Kelly created some buzz last week at SEC Spring Meetings when he brought up the Big Ten-SEC schedule partnership proposal. The leagues have been in discussions about having some sort of challenge in non-conference play.

Kelly is all-in.

“Look, the Big Ten right now holds it on the SEC,” Kelly said. “They’ve won the last two national championships. OK, that’s the reality of it. We want to get challenged in that regard, and we’d like to be able to get that done.”

“We want to play Big Ten schools.”

However, a nine-game conference schedule with an additional Big Ten game in the non-conference is not as simple as it sounds. No matter what the former Cincinnati and Notre Dame head coach claims.

Greg Sankey on the idea of a formal Big 10/SEC scheduling agreement. He said the options are 1) stay out of it 2) facilitate it or 3) mandate them to play. He calls the mandate "incredibly difficult." He said it's a "long road to hoe" for a formal mandate.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) May 28, 2025

If the SEC stays out of it, schools that have non-conference rivalry games locked in likely won’t have much interest in playing an additional power conference team out of league play. The SEC could look into facilitating it — which seems most likely — but there would be some complications mostly surrounding who would be involved. Mandating it and forcing teams to do it sounds like something the league would never agree on.

With everything in college athletics right now, all power conference leagues are looking for additional revenue streams to help the budget for the $20.5 million athletes will be paid once the House settlement passes. The first place to look is at television. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti seems to have a few ideas on how to get more money from ESPN and FOX. This Big Ten-SEC partnership is one of them.

This kind of aggressive proposal feels like something difficult to pull off when dealing with a small sample size sport such as football. However, it gets more easy if a Super League is formed. Is that where we’re headed with college football? If this House settlement does not bring answers (we are still awaiting approval for a system that is supposed to start in a month), it will become much more likely.

Things are changing very quickly. For now, the Governor’s Cup series between Kentucky and Louisville is safe but that could change for UK if a big scheduling move like this one is made in the SEC.