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Brian Kelly shared some insight into a possible future scheduling model the SEC could deploy in future years on Wednesday.
While speaking with reporters at SEC spring meetings in Destin, Kelly said league decision-makers have discussed a scheduling agreement with the Big Ten. Under a proposal, all SEC teams would play 1 game against a Big Ten opponent each year. Under this scenario, the SEC would also likely be playing a 9-game conference schedule, leaving open 2 other nonconference games to play against other opponents.
“We want to play Big Ten schools,” Brian Kelly said.
It’s been suggested elsewhere that the SEC moving to a 9-game conference model would be contingent on the league receiving a certain number of automatic bids into an expanded 16-team College Football Playoff. Under one reported proposal, the SEC and Big Ten would receive 4 guaranteed Playoff berths each season while the Big 12 and ACC would have 2 each. The Group-of-5 conferences would retain their 1 guaranteed berth while the remaining slots would be filled with at-large selections.
However, no format change for the College Football Playoff has been confirmed. If the SEC and Big Ten do proceed with this scheduling arrangement, it’s unclear what it would mean for SEC programs like South Carolina and Florida who have high-profile rivalry games with ACC opponents already on the schedule each year.
Much is still to be decided, but it seems the SEC and Big Ten are inching closer to a potential landmark partnership.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
