SEC Football Schedule: Playing Up The Mountain To Kick Cans & Cash Checks

The league will maintain the same eight-game schedule from 2024, down to the same opponents, but will deftly flip the home and away games. This is similar to a cunning college student who cleverly combined two charts and a graph to turn his sophomore political science paper into a junior economics paper. Teams will also have to play a “major independent” or an opponent from one of the following conferences: the ACC, Big 10, Big XII, PAC-2, or Big 10. Notre Dame, I suppose, qualifies as a significant independent. Regarding the Coast Guard Academy, I am not as sure. We’ll ask Birmingham for more information.

Since this is a Georgia Bulldogs website, announcements of this nature are naturally seen through the eyes of the team’s supporters. So let’s start with a few observations made with red and black tints. As a ticket holder, I think this could be the finest Bulldog home schedule I’ve ever seen. The home games versus Austin Peay and Charlotte aren’t that noteworthy, to be honest. But historically, it’s great stuff to watch Ole Miss, Texas, and Alabama play in Sanford Stadium in the same season.

Secondly, the schedule is demanding yet doable. Although the specific dates are unknown, it seems improbable that we would play Texas and Alabama in quick succession or even close to one another. Furthermore, it’s conceivable that every five-star prospect in the United States will visit Athens at some time to see one of those games from a recruiting perspective. That is invariably advantageous.

The meta-analysis will now begin. Initially, it seems like a model of sloth to simply recycle 2024 and alter the game locales alone. However, I believe that there is a lot more going on here than meets the eye. Disregard the fact that, in the current, departing setup, divisional play plus historic rivals essentially already accomplish this. There is a rationale to the plan and good reasons to keep things as they are.

For one, the league is not going to a nine game conference schedule in 2025 despite many predicting that that would be coming. There are reasons for that both political and pragmatic. Some programs remain nervous that playing nine conference games (and losing the ninth) would knock them out of bowl eligibility. Programs finishing in the lower quartile of the league table still count on those bowl games and bowl money, and know that getting to the postseason reliably quells some of the risk of having to turn over coaches more frequently and more expensively.

Second, even programs contending for the league title are a little wary of the competition level of a nine game conference season combined with a now longer and more grueling playoff arrangement. If you’re Georgia or Alabama, you may not need to schedule Tennessee Tech to get healthy for Mississippi State in week 10. You do need that cupcake game to make sure you still have something in the tank when you have to play Michigan in week 15.

Finally, an eight game schedule preserves some flexibility for future conference expansion. The move toward super-conferences is likely not done. Florida State and Clemson have been rumored as potential SEC additions for two decades now. That will not change, and the ACC powers’ decision to challenge their conference’s grant of rights structure is a clear sign that they want out. It’s equally clear what road they want to leave town on, and it’s the one that leads to the SEC.

Although it is unclear if the Seminoles and country gentlemen will have resolved their dispute with the conference in time for the 2025 campaign, I would estimate that the chances of both finding a new home by the time toe hits leather in 2026 are more than 50/50. For a more year, this schedule maintains the SEC’s capacity to incorporate one, both, or even more elements from other leagues.

British political philosopher Edmund Burke is seen as one of the key proponents of classical political conservatism. That is, Burke’s position was that change always brings with it some risk that things could be made worse, and should therefore be approached with trepidation. Of course, if like Burke you lived among the wealthy aristocracy at the apex of one of the world’s then greatest empires you too would be a big fan of keeping it status quo. You don’t mess with a good thing for no reason. If you were the person who shined Edmund Burke’s boots for a penny before going home to your cramped hovel for a dinner of gruel with a side of typhus fever you might feel differently.

The SEC currently finds itself in a similar geopolitical situation to the Burkian gentlefolk. It’s good to be the SEC in college football‘s current configuration. The league has no reason to experiment at this point. Constituent schools can continue to cash large checks, and the league office isn’t particularly worried about being poached by its rivals. The college football landscape faces uncertainty from NIL, labor relations issues, and media economics. But whatever dangers are out there will come for the Sun Belt, MAC, and even the Big XII long before they reach SEC headquarters.