Does Kalen DeBoer Want To Play 8 or 9 SEC Games?

ATLANTA - The Alabama football program is in the early stages of enjoying groundwork laid by Crimson Tide athletic director Greg Byrne and former head coach Nick Saban.

The Crimson Tide underwent a scheduling revamp, focusing on prominent home-and-home non-conference matchups that fans will enjoy. Alabama has already completed its series with the Texas Longhorns and is in the back half of its series with Wisconsin and USF. This season, it begins its scheduled series with the Florida State Seminoles.

Alabama has non-conference matchups planned through 2035, but plans may be altered in the future if the Southeastern Conference adjusts its scheduling philosophy for the 2026 season.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey opened SEC Media Days on Monday, revealing the league is still debating whether to play eight or nine conference games in the future and noting that all of its league members are playing nine Power Four games in the upcoming season, with some, like Alabama, playing 10.

Each of the coaches have weighed in on the matter throughout the week in Atlanta with many advocating to protect their non-conference rivalry games, while maintaining fairness across the board in terms of competition.

"Yeah, I mean, right now, that's above me," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said on Wednesday. "I know there's questions that get asked the coaches, kind of as you work with your athletic directors. That's beyond me right now."

DeBoer began answering diplomatically, differing to the leadership in the athletic department, but seemed to indicate slight favor for a nine-game SEC schedule in the future, despite the challenging non-conference schedules already baked into Alabama's future.

"I know there's a lot of pros when it comes to strength of schedule. I'm all for that. You look at our schedule this year, again, that was built out years back as well, but we're playing Florida State, Wisconsin, one away, one at home," DeBoer said. "We're all about playing as many high-end games that you can possibly play. Certainly adding another SEC game to the schedule would accomplish that."

Alabama Future Non-Conference Schedules

2026

at West Virginia
USF
Florida State

2027

West Virginia
at Ohio State

2028

Ohio State
UT Martin
at Oklahoma State

2029

at Notre Dame
Oklahoma State

2030

at Georgia Tech
Oklahoma State

2031

Georgia Tech
at Boston College

2032

Arizona
at Minnesota

2033

at Arizona
Minnesota

2034

at Virginia Tech
Boston College

2035

Virginia Tech