Steve Spurrier on SEC moving to nine-game conference schedule: 'It's not unfair'

Just before things get kicked off in 2025, the SEC made a major announcement about the 2026 season and beyond. The years of debate are over as the SEC will move from eight conference games to nine every year. Just one day after the College Football Playoff announced a new Strength of Schedule emphasis, Greg Sankey officially pulled the trigger.

Legendary Florida and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier gave his reaction to the SEC’s decision. He believes it’s a fair one since two other power conferences in the sport do the same. Spurrier later mentioned how the ACC is on its way too.

“Well, everybody has a nine-game schedule,” Spurrier said. “So, it’s not unfair. Big Ten, nine games also. Everybody is going to start going to it. Which means, like you say, 9-3 can get you into the playoffs.”

Spurrier then reflected on his coaching days, going back to 1996 when Florida won the national championship. A regular season finale loss to Florida State seemingly put the Gators out of contention to win the national championship despite going 11-1. However, beating Alabama in the SEC Championship and help elsewhere put them right back in contention.

Florida got matched up with their in-state rivals in the Sugar Bowl just over a month later, emerging victorious this time. Quite a different path than what teams will go through in modern times, the 9-3 record Spurrier mentioned.

“Back in our day — ’96, we lost at their (Florida State) place, 24-21. Three points at their place. We went from No. 1 to No. 6. We were one and two in the nation and lost at their place by three and we were out of it… Someone asked ‘Why in the world did you play FSU?’ Because that’s our schedule.”

Moving back to the present, there is now another layer to the nine-game schedule. Each SEC team will play three opponents on an annual basis and rotate between the other six. Nailing down who the three are comes next in the process.

Spurrier did not offer any kind of opinion but Florida will be among the more interesting decisions to make. Playing Georgia is an obvious one and from there, some longstanding matchups may be cut.

Either way, the Head Ball Coach appears to be in favor of the SEC’s move. Some more leeway is presented to teams in an expanded College Football Playoff field.