Georgia making no comment on preference for SEC scheduling

On3 imageby:Palmer Thombs05/26/23

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GREENSBORO, Ga. — SEC Spring Meetings are set to take place next week, and the league’s two newest additions are going to be on hand. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference in 2024, scheduling is the biggest topic of discussion. Will it be a nine-game SEC schedule with three permanent opponents, thus preserving more rivalries, or does eight make more sense – allowing for more flexibility and maybe more marquee matchups in the nonconference? Georgia is not ready to take a stance.

“As it relates to the schedule, we’re not going to comment publicly on that right now,” Georgia athletics director Josh Brooks told reporters at the UGA Athletics Association Board of Directors meeting. “With respect to the SEC, we have meetings next week and you’ll find out more about that when that’s over. We keep the SEC first and we’ve got internal meetings we’ve got to have and us being public about that doesn’t help those meetings we’re about to have.”

As the question was asked of Brooks, University of Georgia president Jere Morehead stood in the background and smiled. It was a clear sign he’s ready for the line of questioning on the topic to be over with.

“I am ready for it to be done. We’ve talked about it and talked about it. I’m not sure it will get completed. We’ll see,” Morehead said, not sounding as confident as Brooks that there will be a resolution in place at the end of spring meetings. “There’s just a lot of dynamics still playing around on that issue. I may be saying more than Commissioner Sankey would want me to say, but obviously if you go to a nine-game schedule, you have to be compensated for going to a nine-game schedule. There’s still some dynamics that have to play out with our media partners.”

The SEC signed a new TV deal with ESPN this past August that will go into effect in 2024, the same time the two new teams arrive. Worth around $300 million, there was no ninth game agreed to by the league for conference scheduling. So, in order for the parties on the SEC side of things to agree to play a ninth game against a conference opponent each year, they might want more money.

There’s also the hold-up of already scheduled non-conference games for 2024 and beyond that would have to be dealt with. As reported by 247Sports’ Brandon Marcello, support for the nine-game model seems to be dwindling with spring meetings approaching.

Of course, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has his opinion too. After all, he’s the one that would be coaching an additional game against an SEC foe each year.

“I can go either way on that. I think either format’s going to allow us to go through the cycle and through the SEC much faster. So there won’t be a four-year window that you don’t play everybody home and away either way,” Smart said recently at the Regions Tradition golf tournament in Birmingham. “So in the grand scheme of things, what are we really talking about? I think people are looking for something to debate about, but if you’re going to play everybody in the SEC in four years home and away, the two methodologies we’re going about are not that vastly different.”

Should the SEC go to nine-games and protect three permanent opponents, Georgia’s are reportedly expected to be Auburn, Florida and Kentucky. If it’s just eight with one protected opponent, the expectation would be the Bulldogs would draw the Gators annually, thus doing away with the Georgia-Auburn rivalry – at least on an annual basis – that dates back to 1892 and has been played every year since 1944.

Spring meetings take place Tuesday, May 30 through Friday, June 2nd in Destin, Fla.

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