SEC punts, sticks with 8-game football schedule for 2024

The SEC has decided to punt and stick with an eight-game conference football schedule in 2024, though there will be changes.

The nation’s top football conference eventually will consider moving to nine league games as it expands to 16 teams with the arrival of Texas and Oklahoma. But commissioner Greg Sankey said Thursday at the SEC’s spring meetings in Destin that school presidents opted for short-term solution to a scheduling quandary causing considerable conversation and consternation.

“Our long-term options are fully open,” he said.

Opponents for 2024 will be announced June 14 during a primetime television event, with traditional rivalries strongly factored into schedule-makers’ thinking. The move will keep Florida’s non-conference slate intact, including much-anticipated matchups with UCF and Miami.

The 2024 schedules will not mirror those from the past three decades, given the SEC plans to eliminate the two-division setup in place since 1992 when South Carolina and Arkansas joined the league.

The week began on Florida’s Panhandle with scheduling the hot topic. Coaches’ opinions, some stronger than others, formed on each side.

At issue was the impact of an extra loss by eight teams on qualifying for the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024. Many questioned whether a three-loss team would make the cut.

“How is the College Football Playoff going to view strength of schedule relative to the metrics that will contribute to that decision by the [selection] committee?” Florida coach Billy Napier asked. “To me that’s one of the critical factors.”

Eight-game supporters also want additional TV revenue. ESPN based its 10-year, $3 billion TV deal with the SEC, set to begin in 2024, on an eight-game conference slate and before Oklahoma and Texas decided to leave the Big 12.

Those trumpeting nine SEC games aim to put forth an even better product for fans and TV partners.

“I want us to play the most robust schedule we can get,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “We’re at that point where television demands great matchups.You’ve got to put in front of your fan base quality competition.”

But CBSSports.com reported only five of 14 schools favored nine games: Florida, Georgia, LSU, Missouri and Texas A&M.

Despite his school’s support of nine game, Georgia coach Kirby Smart, whose Bulldogs won the past two national championships, brushed off scheduling matters. He called the discourse “the most overrated conversation there ever was.”

The eight- and nine-game scheduling models each allowed for schools to play each other at least twice every four years. This is a boon for fans tiring of stale, predictable SEC schedules, but unlikely to greatly influence players in the age of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness.

Asked if he could sell a recruit the opportunity to play on every SEC campus during his career, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz was incredulous.

“Is that a joke?” he said. “What kids do we have staying for five years? I just got a list of the transfer portal. That’s one of the most ridiculous arguments I’ve heard why we should have no divisions and rotate people through the league. That’s trying to justify your reasoning.

“Look how much roster turnover there is.”

Despite strong arguments on each side, UF athletic director Scott Stricklin anticipated Wednesday the SEC would have to stick with eight games in 2024 because of timing.

Texas and Oklahoma originally planned to join the SEC in 2025 but agreed to pay $100 million in grant-of-rights fees to the Big 12, allowing the schools to leave early.

“When we were here a year ago, they were coming in ’25,” Stricklin said. “The fact that that’s been sped up, and we’re 12 months, 15 months out, and we don’t have a decision, and we all have non-conference contracts for the fall of ’24 makes me think that nine might not be feasible for the first year.

“We saw in ’20 [during the pandemic] we can change things really quickly when it’s imperative. But it would be challenging to do so at this point.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com