📡 At today's SEC meetings, a total of six football coaches are slated to meet with the media - Saban at 11 AM.

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[SEC Sports]

SEC Spring Meetings: Conference to debate 9-game schedule, SEC Playoff

The SEC will adopt a new scheduling model for football and debate whether to start its own postseason playoff.

247sports.com

The list of issues facing college sports has stressed decision-makers past their breaking point, and though some feel powerless with outside influences leading to a quickly-evolving amateur model, the reality is the world has already changed and those in power are now forced to adjust within a dramatically different environment.

In the SEC, those outside influences -- along with the conference's expansion to 16 schools with Texas and Oklahoma in 2025 -- will lead to several tweaks in the way the conference conducts business and some of those decisions could be made this week at its annual spring meetings in Destin, Florida. The top item on the agenda is football scheduling, though discussions about how to navigate a world of paid players (NIL), the complicated and frustrating recruiting and transfer calendar, inconsistent NCAA enforcement, the delay of College Football Playoff expansion and the ongoing remodeling of the NCAA will tinge every brainstorming session scheduled inside several meeting rooms at the Sandestin Hilton.

Complicated? Complex? Seemingly impossible to navigate? Sure. That's why the SEC is focusing much of its energy this week on topics it can control, specifically scheduling and how the SEC must move forward and shape the future of college football rather than wait for its colleagues in The Alliance (ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12) to decide whether the four-team College Football Playoff should expand in 2026.

Simply put, the SEC is exploring an expansion of its own ecosystem that could overshadow or swallow the competition. The conference is scheduled to discuss two football scheduling models -- an eight-game and nine-game conference schedule with more frequent rotations of opponents -- and the viability of a conference-only playoff. The SEC's postseason playoff was an idea developed after commissioner Greg Sankey asked conference leaders to engage in "blue-sky thinking."

"There's a lot stuff you would have to flesh out but the commissioner has encouraged us all to think about things differently," Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin told 247Sports.

Several SEC leaders told 247Sports they believe Sankey's new charge is a result of the fallout of a failed plan to expand the College Football Playoff. Sankey worked two years on a CFP working group to help develop a 12-team CFP, only to be spurned by fellow FBS commissioners in the summer after it was formally presented to playoff leaders. Those same leaders asked Sankey and Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby (among others) to form a working group to develop an expanded playoff two years earlier. They developed a plan in secret for two years without leaks to the media, and after several informal nods of approval, the plan only required a rubber stamp, but the expansion stalled in the wake of shocking news in July: Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. Feelings were hurt. Trust was broken. Relationships among commissioners were strained and Sankey became the easy target for disdain as many painted him as the villain sparking the biggest round of conference realignment in one decade. Meanwhile, the very foundation of college athletics was crumbling with NIL's introduction and football's future, including scheduling and interconference matchups, on shaky ground.

Now Sankey is focusing his energy on how to strengthen the SEC, which already dominates the football landscape with 12 of the last 16 national champions (and both participants in the championship game last season).

"Those unknowns are on our mind as we think about decision making down the road," Sankey told ESPN last week. "This is a fully dynamic environment. ... It's hard to understand where things will end up if you wait for this to play out.

"We wanted to be good be good collaborators. We think we gave up a lot ... what was viewed as a balanced approach given the up-front demands eventually feel apart. We also have the responsibility to think broadly about different possibilities. The SEC will continue to do so."

An SEC postseason would most likely feature the conference's top eight teams, a source told 247Sports. The format is one of dozens presented during meetings among athletic directors in the fall. More brainstorming sessions will be conducted this week and it's not expected an SEC playoff will be presented for approval at spring meetings.

The SEC will spend most of its time this week discussing and potentially adopting a new conference scheduling format for 2025 and beyond. The two models up for adoption: one permanent opponent and seven rotating opponents (1-7); three permanent opponents and six rotating opponents (3-6). The primary point of contention is whether to expand from an eight-game conference schedule to nine games, sources told 247Sports. The league's leadership is split on whether to abandon divisions, though it's believed a nine-game schedule will gain traction in meetings and lead to the inevitable dissolution of divisions. Discussion of introducing four-team pods when Texas and Oklahoma join the conference appears to have been abandoned, a source told 247Sports.

It's believed Texas and Oklahoma will need to be consulted about any scheduling decisions. Representatives from the two future SEC members are not expected to attend the meetings in Destin, a source said, which makes it uncertain whether a formal vote can be taken this week.

Meanwhile, the SEC playoff promises to spark debate inside meeting rooms and open a few curious eyes among rival conferences.

The germ of the idea: eliminate subjectivity in the postseason. Unlike the CFP, an SEC playoff will not require a committee to build the playoff field. The top eight (or six or four) teams in the standings are included in the playoff, and they play for the SEC Championship. The SEC champion could then play the winner of the Big Ten or, possibly, the champion of The Alliance's playoff to determine a national champion.

Again, it's one of many hypotheticals, but that's the point of these meetings, particularly in the always-changing and uncertain world of college athletics.

"You want a postseason structure that is going to incentivize the best possible regular season, structure and format," Stricklin said. "We don't know after the next four years what our national postseason is going to look like and we're trying to make scheduling decisions. We have no idea what this means. So if that's the case, why don't we start thinking of exploring what some other options might be?"

 

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Well Jimbo already ran his mouth, so he knows he shouldn't say anything else.

 

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