There has been a lot of concern about what the Southeastern Conference would do when Texas and Oklahoma join the league next year. We got our answer on Thursday. The SEC is sticking with a football schedule of eight conference games for each team.
The move was confirmed by league commissioner Greg Sankey during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show. He took a shot at critics by referencing Georgia’s blowout of TCU in last year’s CFP National Championship Game.
“I’m pretty sure the last game of the season was 65-7,” Sankey said. “If the indictment is that we don’t play the highest level of football, then someone isn’t watching the games.”
The decision puts the SEC in the minority. Every other power conference schedules 9 league games for their members. While most members of the college football media balked at the idea, there were a variety of reactions on social media.
Sankey noted earlier in the day that 8 games will not be the norm forever. It is what the league believes works best as it adds two new schools.
ESPN’s name did not come up in any of Sankey’s comments. It has widely been assumed that a move to 9 games would be driven by the network upping its payment to the SEC in order to get more inventory.
