The best part of college football is its rivalries. That's why the SEC needs a 9-game schedule
Jun. 2—OXFORD — The SEC will keep an eight-game conference schedule when Oklahoma and Texas join the conference in 2024, the league announced Thursday afternoon at its annual spring meetings in Destin, Florida. After that, however, all options appear to be on the table.
What isn't temporary, however, is the dissolvement of divisions. No more SEC East or SEC West. The two best teams, regardless of where they fall on a map, will play for all the marbles in Atlanta every December.
Reports have surfaced of two main models for 2025 and beyond — an eight-game schedule and a nine-game schedule. In the eight-game model, each team would likely maintain one main rivalry game and would rotate through the rest of its opponents every other year, according to Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger. Were it to be nine games, there would be three rivalry games kept in-tact, and the remaining five matchups would flip biannually, according to CBS Sports' Barrett Sallee.
There are, of course, positives and negatives for each option. The SEC is a grind as it is; there aren't really any "gimmes" on a week-to-week basis. Do teams really want one more conference game, which only creates the chance to add a loss on their resume? Probably not.
But where the shorter schedule comes up, well, short, is where it matters most.
The heart and soul of college football is the people. It's what separates college from professional sports, despite all the changes we've seen with the transfer portal and NIL. The heartbeat of Ole Miss football — of college football — is either a full Vaught-Hemingway Stadium when, say, LSU comes to town, or watching that game on TV with loved ones, shouting "Go to h—l LSU" even louder than normal.
With an eight-game schedule, there's a chance we lose that. And that's really a shame.
Ole Miss' one rival would almost certainly be Mississippi State under that model. It's hard to imagine a world where that isn't the case. But what about LSU? What about Auburn? What about Alabama? What about Arkansas? Whoever the other two opponents would end up being, it's a lot better than having just one guaranteed rival.
Yes, another SEC game played is a chance for another loss. But with the CFP field expanding in the coming years, that might be less of an issue. We will likely get a two-loss team in the field soon.
But on Saturdays in the fall, the past is irrelevant. It's about the here and the now, the moment at hand. It's about the prospect of ruining someone else's season and having bragging rights until the next time your teams play.
Shouldn't we get to see more of the games that matter so much?
