ESPN is willing to Pony Up to get 9 SEC Football Games

Is it really the college football offseason if we aren’t talking about potential changes to the SEC Football schedule? I don’t think so.

The Big 12 and Big Ten were the first leagues to expand conference play from eight to nine games, pressuring the SEC to follow suit. It’s been an annual topic of discussion at the SEC Spring Meetings, but one big thing has stood in the way of expanding the schedule.

In 2020, the SEC signed a 10-year deal with ESPN, giving the Worldwide Leader exclusive rights, starting in 2024. The $3 billion deal was negotiated under the terms that the SEC would play an 8-game conference schedule.

The Kentucky coalition of Mitch Barnhart and Mark Stoops was able to curry enough favor from power-players within the league, like Alabama’s Nick Saban, by arguing that the challenging league didn’t need to add another burden to itself ahead of CFP expansion. Maintaining inter-conference rivalries was another talking point in the conversation, but let’s be real. You gotta follow the money.

The biggest sticking point in the conversation to this point has been the money. Why play more SEC games if you’re not going to be compensated for them? Now, ESPN is willing to go back to the negotiating table.

According to The Athletic’s Seth Emerson and Andrew Marchand, ESPN is willing to pay the league $50-$80 million more per year for the SEC to add another conference game to its schedule. That’s an additional $5 million for each school to play one more conference game. Last year, prior to the start of the new deal with ESPN, each school received $52.6 million from the league in revenue distribution.

Last year’s CFP appeared to be a win for 8-win coalition. Alabama was the last team out, giving the SEC only three schools in the inaugural 12-team CFP. If it’s already hard to get four teams into the postseason, why make it harder?

It may be harder for the 8-game proponents to hold firm now that ESPN is willing to go back to the negotiating table. Money talks. We’ll see how loud that money talks when the league convenes in Destin for the SEC Spring Meetings later this month.

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