Danny Kanell weighed in on the debate that was raging at the start of SEC Media Days on Monday in Atlanta.
Should the SEC stick with an 8-game conference schedule going forward or move to a 9-game league schedule like some Power 4 conferences have had for a while now? SEC commissioner Greg Sankey touched on the controversial subject in his address on Monday morning that kicked off the 4-day event.
What about the argument that the SEC should absolutely go to a 9-game conference schedule now that the league has 16 teams? Sankey wasn’t hiding on Monday morning from the 8-game conference schedule that his powerhouse league still employs, and he also defended SEC teams’ overall strength of schedule when it comes to their conference schedules and out-of-conference schedules.
Kanell has been around big-time college football for decades, playing quarterback at Florida State in the mid-1990s. Although he didn’t play in the rugged SEC, Kanell knows what college football is like at the highest level, and he’s been a college football analyst for a while now before settling into his role at CBS Sports. He’s got his opinions, and he wasn’t afraid to share his take on the SEC’s burning July question about an 8- or 9-game conference schedule.
His solution is simple: Don’t twist the SEC’s arm and make it shift to a 9-game league schedule. Instead, Kanell said on Monday morning, why doesn’t college football push for Power 4 conferences to shift to an 8-game league schedule like the SEC still has? Kanell believes that would make the power leagues have to play more non-conference games.
Kanell’s 1 stipulation would be that the Power 4 programs would all have to play a minimum of 10 regular-season games against other Power 4 schools, so they can’t fatten up on weak foes.
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This debate is sure to rage on until something is done, or maybe because nothing will happen, and the SEC will stick with its 8-game model while the other Power 4 leagues stand pat, too. Either way, it’s a question that will be a hot topic as the summer moves forward into fall.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
