With Texas and Oklahoma coming aboard next season and the divisional structure going away, the SEC has a decision to make: continue with an 8-game league schedule but say goodbye to many rivalry games being played on an annual basis, or move to a 9-game schedule, preserve every important rivalry, but in the process ensure eight SEC teams lose one more game per season.
So far, the conference has kicked the can down the road, this summer announcing an 8-game slate for the 2024 season, with a final decision for 2025 and beyond to come at some point between today and Aug. 30, 2025.
And if Nick Saban's comments are any indication, it seems the SEC is leaning toward the wrong decision -- at least in terms of staging the largest number of interesting games possible.
Now, the comment came nearly an hour into Saban's weekly coaches show, and it was a response to a question that wasn't even about the SEC's future scheduling format. Guest Dusty Dvoracek, an ESPN analyst and a former Oklahoma defensive lineman, asked Saban's opinion about the oncoming addition of the Red River rivals, and in turn Saban praised how the SEC has expanded by adding quality programs without changing its geographic footprint.
He then said this:
"The way we're going to do our 7-team, 1-team fixed, you're going to play everybody every four years, so almost every guy at your school is going to get to play every team in your conference."
Again, this is far from official, official confirmation. But the way Saban speaks matter-of-factly, and the fact that he's likely to be kept informed of internal league deliberations, certainly indicates the SEC is leaning toward a 1-7 format, rather than 3-6.
In a 1-7 format, the following rivalries would not be played annually:
Alabama-Tennessee
Florida-Tennessee
Auburn-Georgia
LSU-Ole Miss
Texas-Texas A&M
Texas-Arkansas
Ironic, considering preserving the Auburn-Georgia and Alabama-Tennessee rivalries are a large reason why the SEC employed a 6-1-1 format (six divisional games, one permanent inter-division game, one rotating inter-division game) from 2012 through this season. That format is responsible for the astounding fact that Georgia will somehow visit Texas, joining the SEC in 2024, before it visits Texas A&M, despite the Aggies joining the SEC in 2012.
(And, by the way: Each SEC team would still play the other 15 at least once in a 4-year period in a 3-6 format as well.)
The root of the issue, it seems, is a common one: money.
If the SEC were to move from an 8-game schedule to nine, some within the conference have argued they would like to be compensated for what they rightly believe is additional value for its television partner, ESPN. So far, ESPN has not indicated it would pay up for more SEC games.
“I may be saying more than Commissioner Sankey would want me to say, but obviously if you go to a nine-game schedule, you have to be compensated for going to a nine-game schedule,” Georgia President Jere Morehead said back in May. “There’s still some dynamics that have to play out with our media partners.”
Sankey has downplayed the financial significance of eight games versus nine. "Money will follow," he said around the same time. "It doesn't lead."
For what it's worth, Saban has been generally in favor of a 9-game format, but complained that Alabama's three proposed permanent rivals (Auburn, LSU, Tennessee) were unfairly difficult.
If his comments Thursday night were any indication, it seems Saban's complaints were heard.