Support for another expansion to the College Football Playoff is gaining traction in the SEC and Big Ten. Brett Davis | Imagn Images

SEC should play Big Ten teams in football, LSU coach says

Originally posted on CFB-HQ on SI | By James Parks | Last updated May 28, 2025 2:49 PM ET

We could see a scheduling arrangement in football that finds the SEC and Big Ten playing more games against each other in the regular season, and LSU head coach Brian Kelly appears to be one of the more prominent voices in favor of the idea.

Kelly said that officials discussed a regular season schedule pact with the Big Ten that includes the SEC adding a ninth conference game, one game against a Big Ten opponent, and two other games of the schools’ choosing.

“We want to play Big Ten schools,” Kelly said at the SEC spring meetings.

And he represents what appears to be widespread opinion among his SEC colleagues.

“I can speak for the room,” Kelly said.

“We want to compete against the Big Ten. Look, the Big Ten right now holds it on the SEC. They won the last two national championships. That’s the reality of it. We want to get challenged in that regard, and we’d like to be able to get that done.”

This season will give us something of a preview of such an arrangement, as Texas will play at Ohio State and Michigan at Oklahoma early in 2025. Alabama will also play at home against Wisconsin this fall.

After some years of speculation, this offseason appears to be the closest the SEC has come to actually implementing a ninth conference game on its football schedule.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has publicly endorsed the idea, but decision makers are waiting to see how adding the extra game would affect the conference when it comes to College Football Playoff selection.

It has been suggested that the SEC would more readily adopt a ninth game if the conference can secure a certain number of automatic qualifiers in any future playoff format.

Under one prominent proposal, the SEC and Big Ten could receive up to four automatic bids each, while the ACC and Big 12 would each get two.

At this point, it’s all speculation, as no changes to the College Football Playoff have even been formally proposed, much less approved and adopted.

But it appears we’re closer to seeing these changes made a reality.