The SEC is lastly, mercifully, shifting to 9 convention video games. Within the conclusion of a debate that has raged for years and but someway felt even longer, the SEC will transfer to a nine-game convention schedule starting in 2026. The transfer brings more cash to the 16 SEC faculties (extra on that later), a greater rotation of groups coming by each SEC campus and extra high-quality video games for followers in every single place to get pleasure from.
With any main determination like this, nevertheless, there are some who will profit greater than others. Let’s take a look at a few of the greatest winners and losers from the SEC’s large transfer that was introduced on Thursday.
Winner: Followers in every single place
Whether or not you’re a fan of one of many 16 SEC faculties or only a basic school soccer fan, you need to be rejoicing over Thursday’s information. With the SEC now enjoying 9 convention video games, whereas nonetheless requiring a tenth Energy 4 nonconference opponent, followers in every single place will get extra large video games that matter. It is TBD on what video games SEC faculties will now drop (do not assume it’s going to be all of the FCS ones simply but), however even when it is buying and selling a Group of Six opponent for one more SEC one, it’s a win for the game.
Relatedly, the SEC’s transfer to 9 video games permits it to enhance its schedule to rotate groups by different campuses higher. In a well-known instance, Texas A&M nonetheless hasn’t hosted Georgia at Kyle Subject regardless of becoming a member of the convention in 2012. Now, SEC faculties are assured to play each SEC faculty a minimum of as soon as each two years and can host each SEC faculty a minimum of as soon as each 4 years, based on SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.
If there’s one barely adverse caveat: Eradicating non-SEC video games and including extra convention video games will probably proceed the ticket hike development and making it much more costly for common followers to afford to take their households to a recreation.
SEC adopts nine-game convention slate beginning in 2026 as CFP metrics shift emphasis on schedule power
Cody Nagel
Loser: SEC groups simply attempting to make a bowl
The maths simply received more durable for the applications whose sights are set extra on simply making a bowl recreation than qualifying for the Faculty Soccer Playoff. For the applications within the backside quadrant of the convention, the trail to get to a minimum of six wins received more difficult. Positive, the additional $5 million or so every SEC faculty will get for a further convention recreation is useful, however it’s troublesome to persistently fill stadiums and get donors to pay for more and more dearer tickets if you aren’t profitable.
It’s one thing I ceaselessly take into consideration when faculties make strikes solely for monetary causes. The debut of the income share period and the accompanying $20.5 million annual hit has ADs in every single place scrounging for more cash, however no faculty has ever hung a banner for producing essentially the most income. You try this for championships. And when the powerhouses like Texas, Alabama and Georgia are getting that very same extra cash as you, it does not positively change the equation for the colleges on the backside.
Winner: Preserving rivalry video games
One of many fears behind the SEC shifting to extra convention video games is it could disincentivize groups from sustaining rivalry video games in opposition to non-SEC Energy 4 opponents. Suppose South Carolina-Clemson, Kentucky-Louisville, Florida-Florida State and Georgia-Georgia Tech.
Shane Beamer, who has steadfastly said he desires to maintain the Clemson recreation, laid out the considerations to CBS Sports activities earlier this yr.
“The one concern I’ve is I simply need it to be balanced for everybody within the convention as a result of everybody doesn’t play a nonconference rival like we do when we have now Clemson yearly,” Beamer advised CBS Sports activities. “So, in my thoughts, we’re enjoying 9 Energy 4 video games as it’s plus we play Virginia Tech this yr, so we received 10. Subsequent yr we received Miami and Clemson, so we’re already enjoying 10 Energy 4 video games. If we play a ninth convention recreation, now we have now 11. That is nice if we’re enjoying 9 convention video games, however I might hope that everyone in our league is enjoying the identical variety of Energy 4 opponents as we’re annually as a result of, if not, then it’s a aggressive drawback to our program.”
In making each SEC crew play a tenth recreation in opposition to a Energy 4 opponent or Notre Dame, it makes it that a lot simpler for these SEC groups to maintain these treasured rivalry video games in opposition to in-state non-SEC opponents. Now, will South Carolina need to preserve scheduling video games like Miami and Virginia Tech on high of Clemson and 9 convention video games? That is still to be seen. However it’s good for the game that these video games that matter twelve months a yr in these states aren’t misplaced within the seek for more cash like so many have already got due to realignment.
Moreover, Sankey and the SEC league workplace perceive how a lot the inter-SEC rivalries matter to individuals. In a 3 rivalries + 6 rotating opponents schedule, SEC groups ought to get to maintain the video games their followers care about most. So, don’t fret about shedding the Iron Bowl or Egg Bowl.
Winner and loser: Large Ten
That is a kind of glass half-full or half-empty situations. In a single sense, you may argue the Large Ten’s repeated feedback, publicly and privately, about wanting the SEC to maneuver to 9 convention video games had an affect and the convention received what it wished. The ACC is predicted to ultimately observe swimsuit, as effectively. This can be a win for everybody, however particularly the Large Ten, which has been enjoying 9 convention video games since 2016. Indiana‘s Curt Cignetti is little doubt smiling someplace about it.
However the place it developments into placing the Large Ten within the loser class is the convention simply misplaced its greatest piece of leverage within the CFP growth debate. The Large Ten has made clear it did not have any curiosity in endorsing a 5 convention champions + 11 at-large groups mannequin if the SEC and ACC nonetheless have been enjoying eight convention video games. It has additionally been an enormous purpose why the convention has most well-liked the automated qualifier mannequin so the choice committee does not should weigh unequal convention schedules when deciding at-large groups.
With the SEC now shifting to equal footing, it may crank up the stress on the Large Ten to affix the remainder of the facility conferences on the 5 + 11 mannequin. The Large Ten has steadfastly pushed again in opposition to that — it has even just lately explored 24 and 28-team playoff fashions — but when Large Ten commissioner Tony Petitti cannot sway Sankey again to his facet on AQ Island, the Large Ten will both have to affix the membership or stand alone because the one convention stopping a transfer to an expanded playoff.
Large Ten’s radical thought for Faculty Soccer Playoff growth frustrates execs, piques curiosity from ADs
Brandon Marcello
Shifting to 9 convention video games and an AQ mannequin beforehand had momentum inside the SEC, so it’s potential that the convention can get again to that place. However it’s value noting that in Sankey’s first public feedback after the announcement, he advised the “Paul Finebaum Present” that the 5+11 mannequin is the place the convention assist is at present.
“From a convention standpoint, we’d assist shifting to 16,” Sankey mentioned. “We’d assist maximizing the at-large which by contract or by settlement we have now 5 convention champions in order that 11 crew at-large mannequin inside a 16-team format nonetheless looms massive in our pondering
Loser: SEC coaches
The SEC’s 16 soccer coaches collectively actually, actually did not need to transfer to 9 convention video games, and so they made that very clear down in Destin, Florida, for the convention’s annual spring conferences. It was so forceful it stymied what on the time felt like unstoppable momentum for including one other convention recreation. As CBS Sports activities reported on the time, a number of SEC ADs banking on the additional cash of a ninth convention recreation have been left pissed off over the way it performed out.
These coaches have been already bothered by the CFP Choice Committee not rewarding their powerful schedules — we’ll see how a lot the current metrics tweaks appease them — and so they know they’re judged by wins and losses. Including one other actually difficult recreation does not profit lots of them.
“I am sure that our coaches are involved in regards to the aggressive side,” Sankey mentioned Thursday. “We have got to proceed to enhance the choice course of for the postseason.”
Now that is the place the nice Don Draper’s quote of “That is what the cash’s for” certainly applies for guys making upwards of $10 million now. But it surely’ll by no means stop to be attention-grabbing to me that coaches we deify and are handled as the most important celebrities on campus usually cannot get what they really need in the case of these large choices.
Finally, the need from the league and its ADs to earn more money outranked the soccer coach considerations.
