Beginning this season the SEC is playing a nine game conference schedule for the first time. That adds a few more thrilling conference matchups each year, but Georgia is the perfect case study for why this change wasn’t needed.
Despite what your opinion is on the SEC vs Big Ten debate, nobody can argue that the SEC is a grueling conference to play in. The conference is loaded with some of the most prestigious programs the sport has to offer, and they always seem to compete at a high level.
When two SEC teams face off against each other it is almost always a bruising collision. The conference began a new tradition this season by implementing a mandatory 9-game conference schedule for all programs, an increase from the previous eight. While that can be good for the sport, it also has created several flaws that are being exposed regularly.
The latest team to expose that flaw is the University of Georgia, who just canceled their home-and-home series with rival Clemson due to the demanding schedule it presents. If the SEC does not go back soon to eight games this could be the beginning of lost traditions.
Clemson-Georgia cancellation is a sad reality of new-look SEC
The Clemson series marks the fourth home-and-home series the Bulldogs have canceled this year as Louisville, NC State, and Florida State also saw their series against Georgia go away. Now that this series is no more, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Ohio State series Georgia has scheduled for 2030 and 2031 to go next.
While the frustration at first glance should go to Georgia for canceling these series that would be great for the sport, fans should be pointing blame at SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and the conference for the grueling 9-game schedule.
If Georgia were to have kept this series against Clemson it would mean they would play 11 Power Four programs each season. Georgia Tech is a slated rivalry game for Georgia every year that will never go away. The Bulldogs annual rivalry with the Jackets means that Georgia will play 10 Power Four opponents every year, and that is without a home-and-home series scheduled. If the SEC were to go back to eight games it would be much more feasible to have an opponent like Clemson or Ohio State on the schedule again.
Clemson and Georgia is a rivalry that could sadly go extinct if the SEC does not change this soon, and it will not be the only rivalry lost. Several other programs within the conference are dealing with the same problem of not being able to schedule more meaningful non-conference games because they already have a full plate of conference games. The implementation of the nine-game schedule was meant to have more exciting games in the conference, when realistically all we have gotten is a half-empty Arkansas stadium as the Razorbacks got crushed by the Bulldogs. It is not good for college football, and it puts a bad reputation on the SEC for backing down to willing competition. Sankey needs to go back to eight games and soon, or else the conference could suffer more in the future.
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