Even if the SEC remains at eight conference games, it probably won't abandon several storied annual rivalries

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — The SEC probably isn’t going to be crazy enough to keep Texas and Texas A&M from playing football against one another every season. Commissioner Greg Sankey said Tuesday that even if the league stays at eight conference games for 2026 and beyond, there are models that would allow for the protection of more than one rivalry.

“We’re attentive to real key rivalries,” Sankey said, “and have models that accommodate those that have been shared and will continue to be shared.”

The debate within the league about an eight-game versus nine-game conference schedule has raged for years — it actually pre-dates Oklahoma and Texas deciding to join the conference — but has more recently crystallized around the College Football Playoff format for 2026 and beyond. If the new CFP format includes the SEC’s desired number of automatic bids (four of 16), the SEC likely will go to nine conference games. If the format does not include that many automatic bids (or no automatic bids), then most SEC athletic directors would prefer to stay at eight games.

If the league goes to nine games, each team likely would have three annual opponents and six rotating opponents. Texas, for example, probably would play Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Arkansas annually. Teams would face every opponent at least twice in four years.

In nearly seven years of discussion, the most prominent eight-game model featured seven rotating opponents and one fixed opponent. That also would have allowed everyone to play at least twice every four years. 

That model would have protected games such as Alabama-Auburn, Florida-Georgia and Oklahoma-Texas. But it would have pushed annual rivalries such as Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia into twice-every-four-years territory. The same would have happened to Texas and Texas A&M, who just renewed their rivalry last season after spending the previous 12 seasons in different conferences.

The SEC created a bespoke conference eight-game schedule for 2024 and then flipped the home and away matchups for 2025. Those schedules ensured Texas-Texas A&M, Auburn-Georgia and Alabama-Tennessee didn’t miss a meeting. Sankey’s initial preference was to have a nine-game schedule installed by 2026, but that preference has shifted during the debate over the CFP selection process. Now, the eight versus nine decision seems contingent on the CFP format.

But the CFP format doesn’t have to be finalized until Dec. 1, Sankey said. That probably is later than the SEC can wait to decide on a schedule format for 2026. 

Sankey wouldn’t commit to a drop-dead date on that decision. He said he learned during the pandemic that decisions usually can wait a little longer than originally expected. 

For now, party and wedding planners throughout the South — as well as fans of other leagues that want the SEC teams to also have to play nine conference games — will wait and wonder.