MIRAMAR ISLAND, Fla. – Even if the Southeastern Conference stays at eight conference games, some of the league’s most notable annual rivalries apparently will not be going away.
That includes the Old South’s Deepest Rivalry, Georgia and Auburn.
Initially, there was a concern that rivalries like Georgia-Auburn, Alabama-Tennessee, and Texas-Texas A&M might cease to be annual events.
Should the league shift to a nine-game schedule, there would be no such concern. But on Tuesday, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey revealed that even in an eight-game SEC schedule, there would be parameters to keep notable rivalries in place.
“We’re attentive to real, key rivalries and we have (eight-game) models to accommodate those,” Sankey told reporters.
The Georgia-Auburn game dates back to 1892 and has been played every year since 1944.
Last season was the first year the SEC eliminated divisions with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma.
It also caused the league to look at a new format.
One of the main topics of discussion at this week’s SEC Spring Meetings is what that format could look like starting in 2026, and whether or not the league goes to nine games.
According to sources, there probably will not be a vote this week, primarily because a final decision has yet to be made on the future and format of the College Football Playoffs regarding automatic qualifiers.
Sankey, other commissioners, and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua have a deadline of Dec. 1 to implement a playoff format change for 2026 and beyond.
While the commissioner believes a decision on the format will take place before then, he doesn’t feel the league would necessarily need to wait until it’s finalized before voting on whether or not to go to nine games.
"You can make decisions about what you can control, then you can have influence over other decisions you don't control -- you participate in," Sankey said. "But the timing is not what I would have designed from an optimal standpoint."
But there’s still plenty of discussion to be had.
On Tuesday, both Florida AD Scott Stricklin and Texas A&M AD Trev Alberts both said they’d have a difficult time supporting a nine-game schedule unless the SEC had guaranteed access.
Bulldog head coach Kirby Smart seemed to agree.
“I’ve learned from the best in the business that you're trying to constantly sustain the game and make the game better, and not just do it for what's best for me or just for self-preservation,” Smart said. “I'm not saying anybody is doing that, but I'm saying we've got to look at it from that perspective, and that's hard. I look at women's softball, I look at men's basketball, and I look at men's baseball, and it just absolutely blows my mind how the SEC can end up with the teams they end up with in those positions.”
The question Smart and others have is, why can’t football?
Smart feels it’s an honest request.
"Now, some of those you can say are play-in, because maybe they went through a regional, and you look at the women's softball World Series, you look at men's baseball, you look at men's basketball, 13 of 16, 14 of 16, and they're larger pools, but when you look at what they're able to do, and there's no outcry, and there's nobody beating the drum saying that it's completely unfair. They do a lot of things based on RPI, they do a lot of things based on strength of schedule, and there are reward teams for that.”
But obviously, not everyone agrees.
On Tuesday, Sankey said he also spoke with coaches about a “5-11” model in a 16-team field – five conference champions and 11 at-large bids, where presumably RPI and strength of schedule could be taken into account.
“At the coaching level, the question is, why wouldn't that be fine? Why wouldn't we do that?” Sankey said. “We talked about 16 with them. So, good conversation, not a destination, but the first time I've had the ability to go really in depth with ideas with them."
But the question over whether the league should go to nine games or remain at eight remains.
"I have a hard time seeing Ole Miss, Alabama, and South Carolina not being in the best teams last year, and that, for me, is a big part of the SEC. People want to say, well, you need to play nine games, you need to play eight games. We don't really know which one of those is (best) until we know the playoff format,” Smart said. “But I beg everybody in this room, the question is, would we have been better off not playing Clemson last year and playing another SEC game to make nine games? How would that have been better for the SEC? How would that have been better for Georgia? I don't think it would have. I think those teams you play outside your conference verify your strength."
