Nick Saban Supports One Major Change to SEC Schedule

The conference has narrowed down its future schedule plan to two choices: an eight-game or nine-game conference season.

At this week’s SEC spring meetings, Alabama coach Nick Saban was asked about his thoughts on the proposed schedule changes for the conference once the SEC turns into a 16-team league, with Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference by 2025.

The future of the SEC schedule is coming down to two options, according to Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger: “An eight-game format where teams play one permanent opponent and seven rotating opponents (1–7 model); and a nine-game format where teams play three permanent opponents and six rotating (3–6).”

Out of those two options, it sounds like Saban is in favor of the nine-game conference schedule.

“I’ve always been for playing more conference games, eliminating some of these games that fans, players, supporters are not really interested in,” Saban said, via Brett McMurphy of the Action Network. “What is best model? That’s the issue. Are other conferences going to play more conference games?”

As Saban points out, there are still a lot of details needing to be worked out and discussed before the SEC makes an official decision for its future. The committee has yet to officially vote on the matter. Regardless, the SEC will be getting a new schedule plan.

Currently, the SEC teams play eight conference games per season. However, unlike the proposed eight-game schedule, the teams play against six teams from their division and two opponents from the opposite division (one permanent opponent and one rotating opponent). But, most conferences want to remove divisions soon, making this model unlikely for the future of the SEC.

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