Coaches Are Right to Worry About Impact of Nine-Game SEC Schedule
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The SEC has long been home to the toughest set of schedules in college football. And they’re about to get even more difficult this season with the addition of a ninth conference game.
The idea that any team could beat another on any given Saturday is essential to the SEC’s “It Just Means More” ethos. But as the schedule expands, that point of pride looks more like a detriment to the conference at a time when College Football Playoff access is paramount amid a three-year national championship drought.
All four power conferences will play nine conference games starting in 2026 when the SEC and ACC join the Big 12 and Big Ten in doing so. But those schedules are not created equally. There’s also an expectation in the SEC, ACC and Big 12 to schedule a non-conference game against a Power Four opponent that does not exist in the Big Ten, home of the last three champions.
In other words, the SEC significantly increased the difficulty of its schedule without much of a reward in return. The playoff has yet to expand and conferences do not have guaranteed postseason spots. There’s a belief that strength of schedule will be rewarded. But will it?
“We believe we're the best conference in college football,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said at the conference’s media days last week. “If so, we should also embrace the challenges with a difficult and challenging conference schedule, the best schedule in college football. It will challenge our teams. It will prepare them for the highest level of competition. It reflects who we are as a conference.”
The SEC has not had a problem getting its teams into the four- or 12-team playoff. The conference has accounted for half of all at-large bids two years into the 12-team format and dominated in the four-team era.
But several SEC contenders have also been left outside of the CFP with one too many losses. Texas was a prime example in 2025. The Longhorns went 9-3 with losses to Ohio State, Georgia and Florida. The Buckeyes and Bulldogs both made the playoff and could thus be considered “quality losses,” but the Gators went 4-8.
“If we beat Ohio State last year, surely we're in a much better position when it comes to the playoffs,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “But on the other side of it is, if I don't play Ohio State and I play Jones Junior High, and we're 10-2 and our two losses are to Georgia and Florida, we're a playoff team.”
Vanderbilt was also left out of the playoff at 10-2 last season with losses to Alabama and Texas.
Flash back to 2024 and there are even more examples. Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina all went 9-3. The Crimson Tide had questionable losses to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. The Rebels were upset by Kentucky and lost late at Florida. The Gamecocks didn’t even have a bad loss — it was just deemed that they had one too many.
Now envision an SEC in which there are eight more losses to be distributed across the 16-team conference. Surely most will be doled out to the teams at the bottom of the standings, but the 100-plus-year history of college football says upsets will occur. That’s the beauty of the sport, but it’s also what has coaches on edge regarding the selection process.
“Until we can get into a world where people can actually look at teams and say that team that is 9-3 with their schedule is a better team than that 11-1 in a different conference, which now I think we aren't even close to doing that, I think it causes a problem,” LSU coach Lane Kiffin said.
Kiffin made a case for playing more nonconference games, mentioning how Oklahoma went on to win the College World Series after finishing below .500 in SEC play. Of course, the difference is the Sooners played 66 games en route to their title. Indiana played 16 on its way to the CFP championship.
“Teams will eventually get out of the bigger nonconference games because the selection process is not fixed,” Kiffin said. “Until that is fixed to really truly reward strength of schedule, I was against it because I think what you're going to have is more conference losses. You don't prove anything.”
That reality is already playing out. Kiffin’s Tigers canceled a future series against Arizona State. Texas is also evaluating the future of a highly anticipated home-and-home with Notre Dame.
“There's risk involved in playing a high-level nonconference schedule, but there's a lot of value in that win,” Sarkisian said. “There's a lot of value in that win if you can get the win. So is the juice worth the squeeze or not? That's what we're all tasked with."
Sarkisian also asked the question on every hopeful playoff team’s mind: “Are we going to let a 9-3 team in as an at-large?”
So far, the answer has been a resounding no. Every playoff race is different. And the committee could choose to make history this fall.
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"My confidence is that people will act with integrity,” Sankey said of the selection process. “I do think we have questions about the understanding of the strength and rigor associated with competing in the Southeastern Conference."
This season, the SEC will start a 9-game conference schedule 🗓️
A likely result of the additional conference game is that every SEC team has a strength of schedule in the Top-20, according to ESPN Analytics. pic.twitter.com/F5o3b9qomt
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) July 28, 2026
Sankey said the move to nine games reflects confidence in the institutions and that he believed his head coaches were embracing the challenge. Many of their comments point to the contrary.
"When we look at our schedules, it’s going to be a real challenge,” said Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz, who said he's not alone in that concern.
When asked about the new schedule creating a more difficult path, Florida coach Jon Sumrall said he was not going to “whine and complain” about being an SEC head coach. But he did point out the fact that the Gators will not play Tennessee for the first time since 1989.
Sankey said the nine-game schedule was meant to protect rivalries, but some are going on hiatus as a result of the change. Florida will also miss LSU for the first time since 1970. Georgia has been on Tennessee’s schedule every year since 1992, but no longer. And though Alabama and LSU will play this fall, that game is no longer an annual fixture, either.
Somehow the introduction of an additional SEC game took rivalries off the calendar and hurt the conference’s College Football Playoff chances in the process. And it stands to threaten the scheduling of future high-level non-conference games.
Consternation about the schedule could evaporate if the SEC ends its championship drought come January. And the size of the postseason field will likely expand sooner rather than later. But if the SEC dry spell continues and the conference is underrepresented in the upcoming playoff, the schedule will surely draw a fair share of blame.
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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Jul 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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