Talk of SEC Scheduling After 2024 Already Starting

We only know who teams will play for a year, but what comes next still an interest

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Aug 23, 2023 2:15 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — One thing I've learned in the last 40-plus years is to listen when certain people talk. You can pick up a lot of information without even having to ask any questions. They are dang near always right.

Former Texas A&M and Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill is one of those guys and has more correct information on everything from teams to coaches and the SEC. He knew months before anybody in Arkansas even considered the Aggies as a replacement to the Razorbacks for LSU on the day after Thanksgiving.

The occasion of the conversation was to remind him he still needed to call Hogs' coach Sam Pittman, who mentioned he interviewed with him and Sherrill was going to call him back by Saturday. Sam said he's still waiting in a story he related at the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Tuesday. In fairness, Sherrill didn't tell him what year.

"Tell Sam I'll get back with him by Saturday," Sherrill told me this morning from the Denver airport while having a good laugh. He was flying to his place in Missoula, Mont. They film a big part of the popular Paramount show Yellowstone (it streams on Peacock, though, and don't ask how that happened) there. He's beating the heat from Texas, where he lives now.

The subject turned, though, to how the SEC might handle football scheduling after 2024, when they broke up existing east and west divisions, but never said it was permanent and they would address everything after that.

In other words, they kicked the can down the road. The league probably wants to learn more about how ESPN is going to handle jumping off cable and satellite in a few years. That's already been announced. Disney is trying to dump the whole thing because it's not making any money, according to financial reports the last couple of years, so no telling what's going to happen there. Pick you favorite financial source and search.

"They are going to the NFL model," Sherrill said. "They will bring back East and West divisions, then have subdivisions and playoffs." He's talked for years about the top teams in college athletics breaking away from the NCAA and doing their own thing.

We didn't have a chance to get into what teams might go where. He had to get on a plane for Montana. Hopefully, they'll be filming Yellowstone and he'll have more stories about how many of the locals there don't particularly care for the broadcasting crews.

He related the story about one of the production trucks blocking a local's drive and popped off basically that he could do what he wanted where he wanted and there wasn't anything the guy could do about it.

"This Montana guy told on of those guys 'this is how we deal with what we want' and knocked the guy out," Sherrill said with a hearty laugh. Apparently the popular television show has a pretty accurate portrayal of life up there in Montana. Especially hearing it in Sherrill's unique way of telling a story.

Don't know if Pittman's going to be waiting on a phone call anytime soon, though. Apparently Sam didn't know how much a hand was in measuring in a horse and that was a disqualifying factor at Mississippi State. It makes sense, though, now that you think about it.