Greg Sankey favors 9-game SEC football schedule, but is concerned about College Football Playoff bids

Long discussed, it appears the SEC could be moving towards a nine-game conference football schedule in the near future, as long as it doesn't affect the league's playoff competitiveness.

James Parks | Mar 4, 2025

We could see a 9th conference game added to the SEC football schedule in the near future. / USA Today Sports | Imagn

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said he favors the conference playing a nine-game football schedule, comments that appear to be the furthest the league’s most important figure has gone publicly in voicing support for the idea.

“One of the issues in the room for our athletics directors is what seemed to matter most, is the number to the right, the number of losses. And how do we understand what that means for our schedule moving forward?” Sankey said during his appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show.

“I’m one who said I really think we ought to be trying to move towards a nine-game conference schedule. I think that can be positive for a lot of reasons. You watch the interest around conference games. But not if that causes us to lose opportunities.”

But that support comes with one important exception: he’s in favor of the ninth game as long as it doesn’t appear to hurt the conference when it comes to College Football Playoff selection.

There has been some speculation that the SEC’s decision to add that ninth game comes down to whether the conference can get guaranteed bids in a new College Football Playoff format starting in the 2026 season.

Leaders of the SEC and Big Ten have held private talks about an expanded, 14-team playoff where each league would get four guaranteed places, according to reports.

Sankey confirmed that such conversation has taken place, referring to the auto bids as allocations.

“Have our athletic directors join in conversation about more allocations, whether you want to call that automatic bids? Sure,” Sankey said.

“They’ve also talked about ideas of evaluating strength of schedule and trying to better understand how that analysis is made.

“I think we should probably slow down a little bit in jumping to conclusions, because there’s a lot of work to do in a short period of time, whether it be our scheduling decisions or discussions about the future College Football Playoff.”

The SEC has debated adding a ninth conference game to its football schedule for a few years, but stayed at eight amid financial and competitive concerns about playing another league game.

The SEC has played eight conference football games since the 1992 season, although the addition of a ninth game has been gaining traction as a subject inside the league for the last three years.

Sankey said last summer that the conference would use the opportunity to examine how the first 12-team College Football Playoff panned out to judge whether adding the extra game would benefit the league and its members.

Arguments for and against adding another conference game have dominated the conversation across the SEC.

Those in favor believe another game would mean more revenue for schools and the conference and would allow schools to play more often in a league that has expanded to 16 members.

Those against another game contend that the SEC schedule is already the most difficult in college football and would be made tougher still by adding more to the plate.

There is also some concern that introducing another game would make it more difficult for some SEC teams to reach the required six victories needed to become eligible for a non-playoff bowl game.

Despite any concerns around adding another game, it appears the momentum inside the SEC is moving definitively towards introducing a ninth league game to the football schedule.

“Maybe we’ll flip a coin over eight or nine,” Sankey joked. “We’ve got some practice.”

Read more from College Football HQ