Is Long Football Schedule Saga almost over? What a move to nine games would mean

Greg Sankey thought this could be resolved a long time ago. On the eve of the SECS 2023 spring meetings, the commissioner was sitting at a table with a few reporters and spoke about landing the plane in the coming week. Two years later, the aircraft is a football planning format, including a final decision on whether the competition should play eight or nine conference matches, still circles.

Now it can finally come land, as ESPN has indicated to the SEC that it is willing to pay more if the conference adds a ninth competition. That leaves the future format of the play -off of the University Football as the biggest obstacle for an agreement, because teams continue to worry that an extra conference match can mean an extra loss.

Yet money still talks. So if the ESPN -increase (which still needs to be negotiated, his sources that have informed the issue) are large enough, the competition could finally reach an agreement. Sankey, who has long prefer to go to nine games, would have been relieved, but he has worked so long enough that he knows he is not taking anything. In fact, he might joke that it was a joke about turning a coin during SEC Spring meetings, which will take place on 27-29 May in Destin, FLA. He also teased the idea of ​​stretching out the drama, even as conference leaders in private knowing what they are going to do.

The last time we experienced this two years ago, we made that decision to stay in Destin at eight games, Sankey said last month during an appearance on the SEC network. Think of the great radio vot that we had for a few weeks. Then we announced the matchups and every month of June easily made in the sports industry. So let's look at the opportunities we can create by playing this a bit to fill those months of May and June.

Consider the accepted offer. It was two years since the schedule of nine games probably seemed, so here is a refresher course about what the format would look like, who could be every team's opponents and what still needs to be done to be completed.

The schedule

The SEC has 16 teams. Each team would play three other teams every year and then run through the other 12 on a biennial basis. That can mean a home and home in back-to-back for years, or the two meetings can be further apart. But essentially the schedule would take a four -year format, in which each team plays each other team at least twice every four years, plus the three annual opponents every year.

Annual opponents

Two years ago, when nine games seemed to be a Fait -Volan, the SEC office came up with three potential annual opponents for each school. Historical rivalry was given a tough consideration, just like a formula that has analyzed the record of each team in recent decade and tried to create some parity. The conference has never released or confirmed the opponents, but various points of sale, including Athleticsreported the list below.

• Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee
• Arkansa: Missouri, Ole Miss, Texas
• Chestnut: Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt
• Florida: Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina
• Georgia: Auburn, Florida, Kentucky
• Kentucky: Georgia, Mississippi State, South Carolina
• LSU: Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
• Mississippi State: Kentucky, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
• Missouri: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt
• Oklahola: Florida, Missouri, Texas
• Ole Miss: Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State
• South Carolina: Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee
• Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
• Texas A&M: LSU, Mississippi State, Texas
• Tennessee: Alabama, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
• Vanderbilt: Auburn, Missouri, Tennessee

It is not clear whether this would still be the opponents if the competition would assume a schedule of nine games for 2026 and then. Two years have passed, so the conference could perform the parity formula with updated records. Some athletic directors and coaches have changed, including in Alabama, where Nick Saban complained about his teams proposed opponents, which is part of the reason that Crimson Tide was wary to move to nine-game schemes.

One advantage of the format: the conference could visit it again every four years. So if some teams end with harder or easier schemes, or change as rivalry (perhaps at ESPN's request, if the assessments see opportunities in certain matchups), the annual opponents can be revised for the 2030-33 cycle.

CFP format uncertainty

This still seems to be the big hold-up, especially last year. Expanding and reformatting the conference by losing departments, produced better games and higher assessments, a big reason why ESPN is willing to pay. But it also created the perception that the SEC chancters beat each other together, where only three teams made the CFP and Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina, miss the cut with three losses each. Alabama -Atletic director Greg Byne made a statement stating that he would judge his school planning philosophy after the tide was omitted.

A solution for this would be that conferences receive automatic CFP offers. The Big ten has pushed the idea more aggressively, but the SEC is at least at least. Under the most discussed proposal, the Big Ten and SEC would each get four guaranteed bids per year, which would remove much from the risk when adding another conference game. But the urge for guaranteed bids seems to have stalled, or at the least momentum lost. The next meeting of the CFP leaders is planned for mid-June.

Even if guaranteed bids are not a reality, there are reasons why the SEC can go to nine games.

Money

The amount of money that every school would get in a revised ESPN deal is still for negotiation. If it is indicated in the range of $ 3-5 million, it would be close to the income that many schools bring in for every home game, including many matches against Group of 5 and FCS opponents.

For example, Georgia reported $ 36.2 million in ticket income last year, plus $ 2.1 million in concession sales, when it had six home games. That is more than $ 6 million per match, excluding the donations needed to buy season cards. It also does not include the costs for organizing the game. Georgia is on the high-end, but home games are almost always lucrative in the SEC, even against non-Marar opponents.

An extra sec game, especially if it means more rivalry and other tent competitions, schools would help to sell better seasonal card packages and attract larger donations. In the era of sharing income and collectives, everyone is looking for ways to earn more money. And in years in which a team has only four home conference games, it can try to plan three non-conference games at home, or sell one of them for a guarantee for neutral place.

About which

Non Conference -Games

The SEC that moved to nine games would not dispel the competitions in the state of Non Conference Rivalry: Georgia-Georgia Tech, South Carolina-Clemson, Florida-Florida State and Kentucky-Louisville. Teams only have to take those games economically into account those games, do their best to plan the home games series in years when they only play four seconds home games.

The question is what happens with other large non -conference games. Clemson and Notre Dame have just announced a 12-year planning agreement, which can be a tip to non-conference schedule adjustments in the SEC, because Clemson and Georgia are planned to play in 2029-30 and 2032-33. On the other hand, Georgia may be willing to play 11 Power-Conference Games. That returns to the subject of the CFP format, and whether teams will feel a good thing or not to plan harder games.

The Big Ten Factor

Once bitter rivals the SEC and Big Ten now work together. Their commissioners, staff and athletic directors met in Nashville last fall and this winter in New Orleans. They work together in conversations about changes in the CFP format, and the next CFP contract requires the two to exercise majority power in determining the format. The two have also discussed a planning agreement. Momentum for that stuck in New Orleans, but the idea was not closed.

If the BIG maintained a schedule of nine games, and all the indications are that it will do, it would be difficult for the SEC to stay at eight. The Big ten has survived his nine matches schedule to produce the last two national champions, plus four bids to leave CFP from previous years, a point Sankey has certainly done its reserved schools.

That could get Sankey to finally land his plane. But in this saga, until the SEC falls the official press release, the plane stays in the air.

(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty images)