Image Courtesy: The Journal Record
The only Power 5 football conference that will play eight conference games is the great SEC.
In Destin at the 2023 SEC Spring Meetings, Greg Sankey and the sixteen coaches agreed upon a one-year eight-game conference schedule for the 2024-2025 season. Each team will be required to play one opponent from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, or Notre Dame when the Sooners and Longhorns join the league. The conference will eliminate divisions and the conference championship game will now feature the top two teams in the standings. According to Sankey, the one-year model allowed the conference members to play schools they were already under contract to play out of conference. He also believes a long term plan for football scheduling will be in place at next year’s meetings (that will likely be a nine-game format with three permanent rivals). Each school’s opponents will be announced on June 14th on the SEC Network. Although there are no “permanent” opponents according to the SEC’s official announcement, I would anticipate the SEC slating teams with their secondary rivals even though only a single permanent rival will be included in this single year slate. So, expect Alabama to draw Tennessee, Georgia to play Auburn, and Texas A&M to play Texas even though those two games are not expected primary rivals in the one year eight-game conference schedule. Here are the expected primary rivals according to sources for this one year format (they will play seven other SEC opponents on their schedule in 2024):
Alabama/Auburn
Arkansas/Missouri
Florida/Georgia
Kentucky/South Carolina
LSU/Texas A&M
Oklahoma/Texas
Ole Miss/Mississippi State
Tennessee/Vanderbilt
