SEC will stick with 8-game conference model in 2025

A new era in SEC football will arrive in 2024 when Oklahoma and Texas join the league to give the conference 16 members. The expansion has eliminated divisions in the conference, but has not changed the scheduling model. After a summer full of schedule discussions, Greg Sankey’s office decided to kick the can down the road after SEC meeting last year.

The conference has now decided to give that can another kick. The SEC will again stick with the eight-game model in 2025, according to reporting by 247 Sports. The conference is also making a scheduling tweak to kickoff times on the SEC Network.

“Desiring an all-day SEC football feel, SEC Network game start times can now be pushed back 45 minutes to lead to more staggered finishes, i.e. moving from 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. CT. kickoff time. A typical SEC Network slate would now look like 11:45 a.m. CT, 3:15 p.m. CT and 6:45 p.m. CT while ABC and ESPN games would keep their typical start times,” Alex Scarborough and John Talty reported. “The SEC and ESPN will have the ability to flex ABC and ESPN afternoon and night games a limited amount of times per school.”

In February, Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte stated that he believed that the conference would go to nine games in 2026. Why that year? Possibly because that is when the College Football Playoff’s new deal is scheduled to kick in with ESPN. That deal has turned into another expansion with a 14-team tournament set to begin that season.

The 12-team playoff era will only last two seasons, and the SEC is sticking with an eight-game model for the two-year window until we shift to a 14-team model. Meanwhile, Florida State and Clemson both have filed lawsuits against the ACC. There could be some more conference realignment coming down the chimney before we get to 2026.

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The SEC is sticking with its current model before the sport changes some more in 2026.

Flip flop opponents in 2025

Wondering what the 2025 schedule could look like without divisions again in the eight-game model? Expect it to look identical to the 2024 schedule. Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald reports that that SEC foes will remain the same in 2025 as the location of games will just be flipped.

That means Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Missouri, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M will not show up on UK’s schedule again in 2025. Instead, the schedule will be the exact same as 2024.