SEC to go with 9-game conference schedule starting in 2026
The SEC will play a conference calendar of nine games from 2026, the League announced on Thursday, a historic decision that it has been planning for years.
The decision was approved by the Presidents and Chancellors of the SEC after a recommendation from the conference sports directors.
“The addition of a ninth sec match underlines the commitment of our universities to provide the country’s most competitive football calendar,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey in a press release. “This format protects rivalries, increases the competitive balance and combined with our requirement to play an additional opponent, guarantees that the SEC teams are well prepared to compete and succeed in the university football playoffs.”
As part of the new format, the dry will continue to play without divisions. Each school will play three annual opponents focused on maintaining traditional rivalries, and the six remaining games will shoot among the other opponents of the League.
Each team will face all the other dry programs at least once every two years and each opponent at home in four years.
The SEC teams are required to plan at least one high quality high quality opponent of the Atlantic coast, Big Ten or Big 12 or Notre Dame conferences each season.
The SEC will continue to assess its policies to ensure the continuous planning of high -quality non -conferences adversaries.
“The SEC has established itself as the leader in the supply of the most convincing football calendar of university athletics,” said Sankey. “Fans will see the traditional rivalries preserved, new games more frequently and an unequaled level of competition across the country.”
Last month, Sankey told ESPN that the conference discussed a nine -game championship calendar since the Clinton administration.
The SEC has played eight conference games every season since 1992, when the conference went from 10 to 12 teams with the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina. The SEC played seven conference games a year from 1988 to 1991 and six games from 1974 to 1987.
Before 1974, there was no uniform requirement for the number of conference matches to be played by each school, most schools playing six or seven championship competitions per year.
