Evidence a 9-Game SEC Schedule is on the Horizon

Mark Stoops and Mitch Barnhart led a coalition at the 2023 SEC Spring Meetings that preserved an eight-game league schedule through the 2025 season, the first two seasons of the new-look, 16-team league. It’s looking more and more clear that this was just a temporary injunction.

Officials at the University of Kentucky are insistent on keeping the SEC schedule at eight games for a variety of reasons, whether publicly stated or not. The primary reason is to preserve the Governor’s Cup rivalry with Louisville. If the conference expands to nine league games, that rivalry game is in jeopardy.

Kentucky and Louisville are still under contract to play through 2027. What’s noteworthy is the absence of others on the schedule in 2026. South Alabama and Youngstown State are the only two non-conference opponents set to face the Wildcats that season, a commonality across the SEC.

Earlier this week, Vanderbilt and Colorado State canceled the final two games of their four-game deal, dropping the Commodores down to three non-conference opponents in 2026. Two weeks ago, Ole Miss and USC canceled their home-and-home series for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

According to FBSchedules, there are whispers that Georgia and UCLA are on the verge of canceling their non-conference series. If that happens, only three SEC teams will have four non-conference games locked in for 2026: Florida, Mississippi State, and Missouri.

SEC Meetings Abstain from Schedule Talk

Eight or nine league games was the primary debate during the 2023 SEC Spring Meetings. It took up all of the oxygen. Ultimately, non-guaranteed additional TV revenue for the extra conference game and the uncertainty surrounding the 12-team CFB Playoff convinced league officials to table the discussion. We expected that conservation to continue this spring in Destin, but more uncertainty arose.

On the night before the meetings began, Greg Sankey said he “didn’t expect a lot of conversation here about football scheduling.” He added, “Given all that’s happening around us, scheduling kind of is out there (to be determined later), and we continue to talk about it.”

He was correct. It was a non-issue, thanks to the House settlement. There are much more pressing matters at hand. For example, how many players will be on college football rosters in 2025? Coaches are infinitely more concerned about those sorts of details than who they will be playing in two years.

Right now, there are more questions than answers about the future of college football. With uncertainties seemingly at every turn, SEC programs are preparing their schedules for an extra conference game in 2026.