SEC to go along with 9-game convention schedule beginning in 2026

The SEC will play a nine-game convention schedule beginning in 2026, the league stated Thursday, a historic transfer it has been contemplating for years.

The choice was accepted by the SEC’s presidents and chancellors after a suggestion by the athletic administrators within the convention.

“Including a ninth SEC recreation underscores our universities’ dedication to delivering probably the most aggressive soccer schedule within the nation,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey stated in a information launch. “This format protects rivalries, will increase aggressive stability, and paired with our requirement to play an extra Energy opponent, ensures SEC groups are effectively ready to compete and succeed within the School Soccer Playoff.”

Beneath the brand new format, the SEC will proceed to play with out divisions. Every faculty will play three annual opponents centered on sustaining conventional rivalries, and the remaining six video games will rotate among the many remainder of the league opponents.

Every workforce will face each different SEC program a minimum of as soon as each two years and each opponent house and away over 4 years.

SEC groups are nonetheless required to schedule a minimum of one further high-quality nonconference opponent from the ACC, Massive Ten or Massive 12 conferences or Notre Dame every season.

The SEC will proceed to judge its insurance policies to make sure the continued scheduling of nonconference opponents from the Energy 4.

A number of ACC athletic administrators informed ESPN they see no cause conventional ACC-SEC rivalries shall be impacted, however future scheduled video games with the SEC might be canceled.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips stated his league just isn’t planning to maneuver from its 8-game convention schedule presently.

“I like the place we’re at with eight video games,” Phillips stated. “We’ll alter if we’ve got to, however I believe a few of these conventional [non-conference] rivalry video games that we actually take pleasure in may go away.”

Sankey stated on The Paul Finebaum Present that the 2026 schedule shall be launched later this fall. He added that the School Soccer Playoff’s choice to make use of enhanced power of schedule metrics performed into the choice to broaden the convention schedule.

“The CFP has made progress, however we’re not at perfection as to how power of schedule shall be used within the choice course of,” he stated.

Final month, Sankey informed ESPN the convention has been discussing a nine-game league schedule for the reason that Clinton administration.

The SEC has performed eight convention video games every season since 1992, when the convention first expanded from 10 to 12 groups with the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina. The lone exception was the 2020 COVID-19 season when the SEC scheduled 10 convention video games and didn’t play nonconference video games.

The SEC performed seven convention video games per 12 months from 1988 to 1991 and 6 video games from 1974 to 1987.

Earlier than 1974, there was no uniform requirement for the variety of convention video games to be performed by every faculty, with most colleges enjoying six or seven league contests per 12 months.

ESPN’s David Hale and Andrea Adelson contributed to this report.