Trev Alberts on moving to 9 SEC games: 'If we get where we can with College Football Playoff, it makes sense'

SEC spring meetings bring more conversation surrounding one of the conference’s biggest topics — the number of SEC games played. Right now, teams only face their conference foes eight times a season but a ninth game could be added in the future, as soon as the 2026 campaign. From the outside, the College Football Playoff‘s future appears to be the holdup.

Now, Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts has admitted as such. Speaking with reporters in Destin, Alberts said going to nine SEC games “doesn’t make sense” if the conference is not guaranteed spots in the CFP. Having some postseason certainty would change things for SEC leaders.

“I personally – if we get where we can with playoff (selection) – think 9 (SEC) games makes sense but it doesn’t make sense if we’re not guaranteed (playoff spots),” Alberts said via Brett McMurphy.

To this point, a decision on how the College Football Playoff will look past the 2025 season had not been made either. Expanding once again to 16 teams appears to be a certainty. After a decade of just four teams, the 12-team era is set to last just two seasons.

How the CFP committee chooses those 16 teams is still unknown. Having five auto-bids, one for each of the power conferences plus a Group of Five representative, with 11 at-larges, is one proposal.

The other has multiple conferences getting multiple autobids. In the SEC’s case, four teams would be guaranteed a spot in the 16-team field. Folks from the Big Ten could say the same, while the ACC and Big 12 are looking at two. We would still see Group of Five get a guaranteed spot, finally mixed in with three at-large bids.

For a school such as Texas A&M, keeping the eight-game format could mean losing an annual rivalry that the Aggies just got back with the Texas Longhorns. Only one protected rival would be expected, possibly giving Texas A&M somebody like LSU. Texas would keep its historic midseason showdown in Dallas with Oklahoma.

However, athletic directors might be willing to lose those games in order to have a better postseason opportunity. After all, every head coach out there is attempting to win a national championship. If the College Football Playoff is going to rely on at-large bids, Alberts and SEC ADs want to soften the regular season schedule with an extra nonconference game, giving their teams another mark in the win column.