AUSTIN, Texas — The first game of the 2024 football season has not yet begun, but the Southeastern Conference has already announced the schedule format for the 2025 season.
The SEC made the announcement Wednesday, and the format was approved by a vote of presidents and presidents of all SEC schools last week.
For eagle-eyed fans, this announcement may look incredibly similar to the 2024 schedule. That's because all teams will play conference opponents in 2025 that they were scheduled to play in 2024. The only change is that the home and away matchups will be reversed for the second season.
The SEC's 16 football teams must play eight conference opponents and one additional game against their preferred Power Five or major independent team.
The full schedule for the 2025 season will be announced at a later date.
(Southeastern Conference)
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement that the schedule format will continue to evolve beyond the 2025 season.
“We continue to monitor changes across college sports as they relate to future schedules,” Sankey said. “Continuing with the current format for the 2025 season will give us additional time to understand the impact of the changes happening around us as we determine the appropriate long-term plan for the SEC football schedule. Masu.”
There were differing opinions among SEC athletic directors and coaches on whether the conference should move to a nine-game conference schedule.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban has previously said he supports adding conference games, while Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart has publicly supported adding conference games.
SEC fans can look forward to some big changes this season as Texas and Oklahoma join the conference in July. Both Texas and Oklahoma State are entering the SEC with top-10 recruiting classes.
With the addition of these two teams, the East and West divisions will no longer be part of the SEC, and the top two teams in the regular season standings will instead compete in the SEC Championship Game. This change to the conference championship game comes as the College Football Playoff expands from four teams to 12 teams next season.
