The SEC has contemplated switching to a nine-game conference football schedule for years. This week, the league will revisit the matter during its spring meetings in Miramar Beach, Florida, but with a fresh piece of information.
Commissioner Greg Sankey stated that the decision might be affected by Alabama, South Carolina, and Ole Miss being passed over in the College Football Playoffs.
According to Sankey, the CFP selection procedure has grown significantly in importance.
Last season, the Crimson Tide dropped three games to teams that were far from them, Vanderbilt, and Oklahoma, as well as a Tennessee club that qualified for the CFP field. SMU advanced to the field ahead of all three-loss SEC schools despite losing in the ACC title game.
Alabama immediately protested, pointing out that its schedule strength greatly exceeded that of the Mustangs. Greg Byrne, director of sports at UA, stated right away that the rebuff might alter the Tide’s future non-conference schedule.
Now, it might even affect the conference calendar in the long run.
“You can’t just go through a College Football Playoff selection idea without considering the effects of playing eight or nine games.” Sankey stated. That’s the level of analysis, then. We will also examine this tomorrow, and whether or not others agree with it is up to them. We may review the data and determine that our timetable is more rigorous than anyone else’s, for that matter.
Sankey expressed his disapproval of clubs being forced to skip challenging non-conference games, arguing that it would negatively impact the on-field performance. But he claimed that the teams that were passed over taught the league a valuable lesson for the future.
We discovered, among other things, that you cannot separate your regular-season schedule from your College Football Playoff pick, Sankey stated. “In fact, I believe there is a greater sense that the College Football Playoff selection process controls regular-season scheduling.”
On Tuesday, the SEC will resume its spring sessions. The Florida meetings are expected to continue through Thursday.
