This season marks the first year that the SEC will play nine conference games. They were pressured by the Big Ten who has played nine conference games since 2016 because they thought it wasn’t fair that the SEC wasn’t doing the same.
So the SEC folded and will now play nine conference games for the foreseeable future just like the northerners, but strength of schedule rankings for the upcoming season prove how horrible this decision was.
This season, the SEC will start a 9-game conference schedule 🗓️
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) July 28, 2026
A likely result of the additional conference game is that every SEC team has a strength of schedule in the Top-20, according to ESPN Analytics. pic.twitter.com/F5o3b9qomt
Adding a ninth conference game was the worst thing the SEC could do
Why did the SEC feel the need to be like the Big Ten? The SEC is the best conference in the country, so there is no reason that they need to copy the Big Ten’s format just because they asked them to.
Instead the SEC should’ve stayed the course and played an eight game conference schedule like they have been. Not only does that make their schedules more comparable to the Big Ten from a difficulty standpoint, but it also would allow SEC teams to schedule more non-conference games against big opponents. Instead teams like Georgia were left with no choice but to cancel many of their future home-and-home series.
But the increase in schedule difficulty is the biggest reason why this change wasn’t needed. Just look at Georgia who has the easiest schedule in the SEC but the 20th most difficult in the country. How does that make any sense?
Unfortunately these schedules could come back to haunt Georgia and every other playoff caliber team in the SEC when it comes time for the CFP to begin.
Difficult schedules punish the SEC in the CFP
The Big Ten has won the last three National Championships. That is unacceptable for a conference like the SEC who has dominated the sport for so long. So all offseason fans have been trying to figure out how the Big Ten pulled this off, and it might have something to do with the SEC’s schedules.
Last year all 16 SEC teams had schedules that ranked inside the top 17 most difficult in the country. Keep in mind that was when they were still playing eight conference games, but those difficult schedules did the conference no favors when it came time for the playoff to begin.
These more difficult schedules meant that each SEC team were more beat up compared to their Big Ten counterparts. The best Big Ten teams regularly got to play extremely bad teams which essentially gave them another bye week, so they were much more rested when it came time for the playoff than the SEC teams are.
On top of that, the CFP committee has already proven that they don’t value strength of schedule in their rankings as much as they should.
So what’s the point in making their schedules more difficult when they were already more difficult than the Big Ten’s schedules? If anything this just gave the Big Ten an even greater advantage because their best teams will be able to feast off the countless bottom dwellers their conference has while the best teams in the SEC will be challenged by real opponents every week.
This clearly was a big mistake by the SEC and could cost the conference (and Georgia) future National Championships.
Add us as a preferred source on Google