SEC moving to nine-game conference football schedule in 2026

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The Southeastern Conference announced they would move to a nine-game football schedule beginning in 2026 on Thursday afternoon. The decision was approved by the league’s Presidents and Chancellors after it was recommended by the athletic directors. Following approval, an announcement was then made by commissioner Greg Sankey.

“Adding a ninth SEC game underscores our universities’ commitment to delivering the most competitive football schedule in the nation,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. “This format protects rivalries, increases competitive balance, and—paired with our requirement to play an additional Power opponent—ensures SEC teams are well prepared to compete and succeed in the College Football Playoff.”

The new format will include a few different parameters:
The SEC will continue with a single-standings, non-divisional structure.
Each school will play three annual opponents focused on maintaining many traditional rivalries.
Each team’s remaining six games will rotate among the remaining conference schools.
Each team will face every other SEC program at least once every two years and every opponent home and away in four years.

Check out my predictions for each SEC team’s potential three permanent rivals in a post I published in August of 2023 for when the league eventually got to nine game schedule. I will also write a post about all of the possibilities for Arkansas’ three permanent rivals in the next few weeks.

SEC teams are required to schedule at least one additional high quality non-conference from the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten or Big 12 conferences or Notre Dame each season like it did under the eight-game model. The league will continue to monitor how its policies so it is successful in scheduling elite non-conference games.

The SEC has played a different number of conference games during each era of its existence. Prior to 1974, each team played either six or seven games against fellow SEC opponents each season. From 1974 to 1987, every team played six conference games annually. That number increased to seven from 1988 to 1991. After Arkansas and South Carolina joined the SEC—expanding the league from 10 to 12 teams—the eight-game conference schedule was introduced. Since then, eight conference games have been the norm.

The SEC continues to dominate college football and college sports overall and winning their first national championship in the sport this January would be the cherry on the top as they enter their first nine-game conference schedule in 2026. Many believe the move to the nine-game schedule happened as a result of the new straight seeding format for this season’s 12-team College Football Playoff with a new strength of schedule metric.