Eli Drinkwitz Shares His Thoughts on New 9-Game SEC Schedule

Missouri's head coach had previously shared his thoughts on the nine-game schedule and had more to say at a press conference on Saturday.

Jul 17, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; Missouri Tigers head coach Eliah Drinkwitz talks to the media during the SEC Media Days at Omni Atlanta Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images | Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images

The Southeastern Conference announced Thursday that it would be shifting to a nine-conference game model at the beginning of the 2026 season, adding another conference game to each team's schedule.

Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz had previously been outspoken on the topic, sharing his thoughts at SEC Media Days back on July 17. In Drinkwitz's eyes, the decision to change the schedule falls back on two key components.

The main one is the college football fanbase. Another conference game should mean more entertaining conference games and one less non-conference game that is unevenly matched.

"I think from a fan standpoint, it's awesome. I really do," Drinkwitz said in a press conference Saturday. "I think adding those games are great for the fans."

Outside of the fans, the new schedule impacts and matters to the players participating in that extra conference game. In many ways, it should benefit them too.

"I still believe that the two most important factors in making decisions, [in] my opinion, from a conference standpoint or college football, is the fans and the players, and everything else is really secondary," Drinkwitz said. "I don't think we should weigh in conference affiliation or finances or all that different stuff, is, [in] my opinion, really caused a lot of the issues we have in college football right now."

READ: SEC Moving Toward 9-Game Conference Schedule, Per Report

Drinkwitz does believe that there could be a ripple effect from the recent decision made by the conference, one that could affect the Tigers. It's too early to see what negative consequences it could bring along, but one of those is the fact that half of the conference will have one more home game than the other half every year.

"I think there's going to be unintended consequences with having a four and five-game rotation where you only have four conference home games and there's going to be five conference road games, which now makes scheduling even more challenging," Drinkwitz said.

Given the recent investments the university has made toward the football program, one less home game would not benefit them. Missouri undoubtedly wants to show off the improvements and renovations to Memorial Stadium, slated to be done for the 2026-27 season.

"Which would make no sense when you spent $250 million building a north endzone project," Drinkwitz said. "I think there's a lot of challenges there that we have to figure out and get right. And it's not exactly like they're giving us a lot of time to do that."

At the moment, what could change next season isn't the exact focus for Drinkwitz and the Tigers. They still have an entire season of football to play, and with high goals and aspirations for it, that's at the forefront of Drinkwitz's mind.

"I jus hope we'll get through this season first, because there's no guarantee anything for next year," Drinkwitz said. "So focus on being 1-0 this year, then we'll figure out next year's challenges next year."

In general, there's no way to determine how an extra SEC game could affect the Tigers until they are in that moment. This decision lines up next year's season to be an interesting one for Missouri and the other teams in the conference.