The SEC is sticking with an eight-game schedule for the 2025 season, with every staff taking part in the identical opponents as 2024, however with areas being flipped, the convention introduced Wednesday.
As an example, Georgia will host Alabama, Texas, Ole Miss and Kentucky, the 4 away video games it has in 2024. This format additionally means Texas will host Texas A&M, Oklahoma will journey to Tennessee and Ole Miss will go to Oklahoma.
“We proceed to watch adjustments throughout faculty sports activities as they relate to future scheduling,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey mentioned in an announcement. “Persevering with with our present format for the 2025 season gives further time to know the affect of the adjustments taking place round us as we decide the suitable long-term plan for SEC soccer scheduling.”
That method is one other signal the convention nonetheless has an eye fixed on increasing to a nine-game schedule, with the eight-game schedules in 2024-25 as merely a bridge. Dates and instances shall be introduced at a later date.
Free, every day sports activities updates direct to your inbox. Enroll
Free, every day sports activities updates direct to your inbox. Enroll
Purchase
After the additions of Oklahoma and Texas, the prospect of going to 9 video games appeared inevitable for the 2024 season. However issues from some applications about bowl eligibility, coupled with most colleges not getting more cash from ESPN, led to adopting what was thought of a stopgap — the eight-game schedule for 2024.
Now that’s been prolonged a yr, with every staff taking part in the identical opponents.
The SEC has thought of two schedule codecs, each of which eradicate divisions:
- An eight-game format the place every staff has one annual rival, then rotates the remainder of the convention.
- A nine-game format the place every staff has three annual rivals, then rotates the remaining.
In every format, each staff would play everybody else at the very least twice each 4 years, dwelling and away. (Apart from neutral-site video games resembling Oklahoma-Texas and Florida-Georgia.)
However the eight-game 2024 schedule is believed to maintain every staff’s three possible annual rivals if the SEC goes to 9. The SEC has by no means publicly confirmed what these three annual rivals could be, however sources at completely different faculties have mentioned their three probables had been on their 2024 schedules. In Georgia’s case, for example, that was Florida, Auburn and Kentucky.
Nonetheless, some throughout the convention hope to extract more cash from ESPN for going to a nine-game schedule. However the longer it goes, and with monetary uncertainty at ESPN and its father or mother Disney, extra are resigned to having to decide separate from what ESPN decides.
There’s additionally the general uncertainty about what the school panorama will appear like, whether or not that’s additional realignment or anything. Clemson becoming a member of Florida State in suing the ACC to get out of the grant of rights is yet one more wrinkle.
Subsequently, going with a brief schedule for 2025 is the SEC’s means of continuous to keep up flexibility. And it didn’t need its annual spring conferences in Destin, Fla., in late Might, to once more be dominated by the schedule dialogue. So it’s getting the choice out of the way in which to maneuver on to weighing the better issues on its plate.
Required studying
(Photograph: Jeffrey Vest / Getty Pictures)