BIRMINGHAM, Ala. \u2014 The Southeastern Conference is moving to a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2026, ending a yearslong debate and potentially easing a path toward another expansion of the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n
The change was approved by conference presidents and chancellors Thursday. It previously had been recommended by league athletic directors.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdding a ninth SEC game underscores our universities\u2019 commitment to delivering the most competitive football schedule in the nation,\u201d SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SEC has played eight conference games each season since 1992 when the conference expanded to 12 teams with the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina. The Atlantic Coast Conference still plays eight league games. The Big 12 and the Big Ten already play nine.<\/p>\n
Getting to nine should improve strength of schedule arguments for the SEC moving forward, even though the conference has said for years its eight-game slate is more daunting than other leagues’ nine games. The change came one day after the CFP selection committee said it will place more emphasis on strength of schedule when determining which teams make the 12-team field. <\/p>\n
The committee said the schedule strength metric has been adjusted to apply greater weight to games against strong opponents. An additional metric, record strength, has been added to go beyond a team\u2019s schedule strength to assess how a team performed against that schedule.<\/p>\n
Under the SEC’s new format:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart watches his team work out during a Georgia football practice, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in Athens. Credit: AP\/Mike Stewart<\/p>\n
\u2014 The league will continue with a single-standings, non-divisional structure;<\/p>\n
\u2014 Each school will play three annual opponents focused on maintaining many traditional rivalries;<\/p>\n
\u2014 Each team\u2019s remaining six games will rotate among the remaining conference schools; and<\/p>\n
\u2014 Each team will face every other SEC program at least once every two years and every opponent home and away in four years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Auburn footballs sit in a bag prior to an NCAA football game against Georgia, Sept. 30, 2023, in Auburn, Ala. Credit: AP\/Stew Milne<\/p>\n
SEC teams are required to schedule at least one additional non-conference game against a team from the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten or Big 12 conferences \u2014 or Notre Dame.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe SEC has established itself as the leader in delivering the most compelling football schedule in college athletics,\u201d Sankey said. \u201cFans will see traditional rivalries preserved, new matchups more frequently, and a level of competition unmatched across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BIRMINGHAM, Ala. \u2014 The Southeastern Conference is moving to a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2026, ending a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1976,1607,399,398,396,397,99,9815],"class_list":{"0":"post-100660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}