SEC to remain at eight conference games in ’24, long-term future undecided

The Southeastern Conference has announced that football schedules will remain at eight conference contests in 2024, despite the addition of Texas and Oklahoma pushing membership to 16 schools, with the potential of a ninth game in 2025 and beyond still up for discussion. 

The university presidents met last week in Destin, Florida, debating a scheduling system that seems to be split down the middle.  Some schools like LSU and Texas A&M are onboard with nine conference games, however Kentucky has been vocal in wishing to stay at eight.  Despite having their athletic directors take place in the meetings, Texas and Oklahoma do not gain voting rights until July 2024.

Other details from the scheduling options within the SEC are that the nine-game model would feature three permanent rivals on the yearly schedule for each of the 16 schools, while staying at the eight-game model would have just one permanent rival.

The 2024 football matchups will be announced on Wednesday, June 14th on the SEC Network, but without the reveal of exact dates.  However, the league will be forgoing the divisional setup used since 1991.  That decision will remove Missouri from the “SEC East” that includes Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky.

A major snafu with future conference scheduling is how to keep traditional rivalry matchups with a quickly evolving super-conference.  Commissioner Greg Sankey said that Alabama-Auburn and Ole Miss-Mississippi State will to played and protected in 2024, however, he would not commit to a 2024 renewal of the Texas-Texas A&M feud, which has not been played since the Aggies left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012.  The addition of Texas will be challenging, with the Longhorns not only seeking to play the Aggies on a yearly basis, but also protect the annual Red River Rivalry showdown with border rival Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

With the disbanding of the two-division set-up starting in 2024, the top two teams in the standings at the end of the regular season will play in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.