Kentucky reportedly arguing to keep eight-game SEC football schedule
According to reports, Kentucky has become a major voice in the debate over future football scheduling taking place at the SEC Spring Meetings in Sandestin, Fla.
Seth Emerson of The Athletic reports that Kentucky, Mississippi State and Arkansas are lobbying for the current number of eight conference games while Alabama and Florida, among others, are in favor of expanding to a nine-game schedule.
With Oklahoma and Texas scheduled to join in 2025, the league appears ready to scrap the divisional format it has used since the SEC first expanded in 1992.
The conference is considering a 1-7 model and a 3-6 model. In the 1-7 model, teams would play one fixed opponent and rotate the other seven over a two-year period. In the 3-6 model, teams would play three fixed opponents and rotate six on a two-year basis.
“From our perspective, eight (conference games) has worked out really well for us,” Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart said. “It’s something we’ve been able to schedule thoughtfully about how we have built our program. We have the Louisville game at the end of the year, which is always a part of our scheduling. So when you do eight plus that game is nine, and the ability for us to say that competitively and financially this is what works best for Kentucky is really, really important. And so for us, and I can only speak for me and our program, I think eight works well.”
One consideration is whether other Power Five conferences will play nine league games. Both the Pac-12 and Big Ten are currently playing a nine-team league schedule. With the College Football Playoff remaining as a four-team tournament for the next few years, there has been talk that both leagues will return to an eight-game schedule.
One argument for the eight-game SEC schedule is that it would be easier to preserve non-conference rivalries, such as Kentucky vs. Louisville. An argument for the nine-game SEC schedule is that it would preserve secondary rivalries such as Auburn-Georgia, Alabama-Tennessee and Kentucky-Tennessee.
Why wouldn’t Kentucky-Tennessee be UK’s annual fixed game in a 1-7 model? The Vols are more likely to end up with Vanderbilt as its “permanent” rival on the schedule. Others could be Alabama-Auburn, Oklahoma-Texas, Mississippi State-Ole Miss, Florida-Georgia, Missouri-Arkansas and LSU-Texas A&M. That would leave South Carolina as Kentucky’s fixed opponent.
Alabama coach Nick Saban is sending mixed signals on the scheduling subject.
“I’ve always been for playing more conference games,” Saban said Tuesday, according to the Tuscaloosa News. “I think the nine-game format is a start in that direction, but what is the best model?” he said. “I think that’s the issue. What is the best model? That’s No. 1. And No. 2 is: Are other conferences doing the same thing? Are they going to play more conference games? Are they going to have the same kind of competitive balance? This always goes back to competitive balance. And when you have conferences making all the decisions, sometimes you lose a little bit of that.”
Andy Staples of The Athletic believes the SEC has only one smart scheduling choice.
“Did you spot the dumb one? Of course you did,” wrote Staples. “It’s the 1-7 model. If a bunch of allegedly intelligent people got together and decided that Texas and Texas A&M — or Georgia and Auburn or Alabama and Tennessee — shouldn’t play annually when a reasonable possibility exists, then whoever voted to adopt that model should find a new line of work. They lack the common sense to sell football games for a living, and that calls into question their decision-making in every other matter as well.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 7:57 AM.
