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SEC Protects Beloved Non-Conference Rivalries With New Scheduling Format

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Alex Weber | Last updated Aug 21, 2025 7:33 PM ET

SEC Football took the plunge. They finally joined the Big Ten and moved their league schedule from eight games to nine games per season.

"The Southeastern Conference (SEC) today announced it will implement a nine-game football schedule beginning in 2026, reinforcing the SEC’s position as the nation’s leader in competitive excellence and fan excitement," their release read.

After years of debate between school administrators and coaches, the SEC ultimately decided to pull the plug on the longstanding eight-game slate to add one more, to the chagrin of several schools but to the joy of several others, obviously.

However, there is one huge win for the fans in the new setup.

Obviously, addition means subtraction. When you add an extra league game, you have to take away another non-conference game, that's just math. Many fanbases feared that adding an extra SEC could mean losing their beloved non-conference rivalry.

After all, if these teams were forced to drop opponents from the schedule, they are much more likely to get rid of their annual power conference rival than one of the, you know, cupcake games against some directional lower-league school.

Shrewdly, the SEC maintains a rule basically preventing teams from doing just that, requiring every school to schedule a non-conference foe in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, or Notre Dame.

"SEC teams are required to schedule at least one additional high quality non-conference (opponent) from the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten or Big 12 conferences or Notre Dame each season," said the report.

"The SEC will continue to evaluate its policies to ensure the continued scheduling of high-quality non-conference opponents," it added.

Florida, Georgia, others should maintain rivalries

So, now that schools are required to play at least one non-conference opponent, you'd think that the notable rivalries from outside the league will persist.

For instance, Kentucky has no excuse to rid Louisville from their schedule, which was a really worry for Wildcat fans if the SEC did move to nine games. Well, they did, and now Kentucky still has to fill their schedule with one power conference opponent outside the SEC. Spoiler alert: that opponent is almost certainly going to be Louisville.

The same goes for Florida, who annually faces Florida State, and Georgia, who faces Georgia Tech, and South Carolina, who faces Clemson.

If the SEC did NOT mandate the extra game as part of the expanded slate, some of those schools could have just dropped those rivalries from their schedules. Coaches might love that, but the fans certainly would not.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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