SEC 8-Game Scheduling Format, Puts Georgia's Rivalry Games in Peril
The announcement that Texas and Oklahoma would officially join the SEC in 2024, a year earlier than originally anticipated, kicked off a lengthy and contentious debate over the format of the Southeastern Conference’s future scheduling format once the conference expands to 16 members. On Thursday, the SEC ended the speculation when it announced that the league will remove divisions and play an 8-game conference schedule during the 2024 season.
As the conference met in Destin, Florida this week for its annual spring meetings, the debate over the league’s future scheduling format was complicated by competing interests among its member institutions. The 14 schools currently in the SEC were split between an 8-game conference schedule that would include one permanent opponent for each conference member and a 9-game conference schedule that would feature three permanent opponents for each school. Both options had the benefit of allowing schools to play each team in the conference at least twice in a four-year span, but there were aspects to both formats that teams objected to.
Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart met with the media on Wednesday, May 31 as league officials gathered in Destin, Florida for the SEC's annual spring meetings.
The non-traditional football powers in the league contended that playing an extra conference game - the league currently plays eight conference games - in a league that has claimed each of the last four and six of the last eight college football national champions would make it more challenging for those schools to qualify for bowl games. Other schools, such as Georgia, who have a number of traditional conference rivals, were wary of an 8-game schedule that would require them to abandon the annual secondary rivalries that are important to their institutions and fanbases.
While the SEC has formally announced its scheduling format for the 2024 season, in a statement released Thursday night, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey made sure to emphasize that the league’s 2024 football scheduling format could be subject to change in future years once issues related to television contracts, previous non-conference commitments, and the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12-teams in 2024 become more clear.
“We have been engaged in planning for the entry of Oklahoma and Texas into the SEC since the summer of 2021, but the change of the membership date from 2025 to 2024 creates scheduling complexities that can better be managed with a one-year schedule,” Sankey said. “Creating a one-year schedule will provide a longer on-ramp to manage football scheduling around existing non-conference commitments of our members. It will also provide additional time to understand the impact of an expanded College Football Playoff and engage with our media partners as we determine the appropriate long-term plan for SEC football scheduling.
“During this time of change, our fans will continue to enjoy traditional rivalries and begin to see new matchups presented by the addition of two historically successful football programs to the SEC.”
In 2024 the SEC will be the only Power 5 conference that does not require its members to play nine conference games. In an effort to mitigate potential concerns surrounding strength of schedule for those league members potentially in contention for a College Football Playoff berth, the SEC is also requiring each school in the conference to play at least one non-conference game against a Power 5 opponent next season. Additionally, with the elimination of divisions, the 2024 SEC Championship game in Atlanta will feature a matchup of the two teams with the best conference record.
Brett McMurphy of the Action Network reported that Sankey indicated the SEC’s 8-game conference schedule will be determined based on “expectation of fairness and balance” and will “honor our traditional rivalries.” For Georgia, the two most important traditional rivalries are its long-standing annual matchups with Auburn and Florida, who the Bulldogs have played every season since 1943. Outside of that single year in the middle of World War II, the Bulldogs and Tigers have played annually dating all the way back to 1892 - 127 meetings in total - leading the rivalry between the two SEC institutions to be dubbed “The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.”
McMurphy also reported that the full 2024 SEC schedule will be released in primetime on the SEC Network on Wednesday, June 14. At that time, Georgia fans will find out whether or not the team’s traditional rivalries with Florida and Auburn will be maintained and which other teams will fill-out the Bulldogs’ 2024 schedule.
