BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Southeastern Conference is moving to a nine-game league schedule for football in 2026, ending a debate that had lingered for years and potentially easing a path toward another expansion of the College Football Playoff.
The change was approved Thursday by presidents and chancellors of SEC schools; it had already been recommended by athletic directors within the league.
“Adding a ninth SEC game underscores our universities’ commitment to delivering the most competitive football schedule in the nation,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a release announcing the move. “This format protects rivalries, increases competitive balance, and paired with our requirement to play an additional Power opponent, ensures SEC teams are well prepared to compete and succeed in the College Football Playoff.”
The SEC has played eight conference games each season since 1992, when the conference expanded to 12 teams with the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina, and continued with that format after two more rounds of expansion adding two former Big 12 members each time: Missouri and Texas A&M ahead of the 2012 season and Oklahoma and Texas ahead of last season.
The Atlantic Coast Conference, which has 17 football-playing members, still plays eight league games, while the 16-team Big 12 and the 18-team Big Ten already play nine. Getting to nine should improve strength-of-schedule arguments for the SEC moving forward, even though the conference has said for years its eight-game slate is more daunting than other leagues’ nine games.
The change came one day after the CFP selection committee said it will place more emphasis on strength of schedule when determining which teams make the 12-team field. The committee said the schedule strength metric has been adjusted to apply greater weight to games against strong opponents. An additional metric, record strength, has been added to go beyond a team’s schedule strength to assess how a team performed against that schedule.
Under the SEC’s new format, the league will continue with a single-standings, nondivisional structure; each school will play three annual opponents focused on maintaining many traditional rivalries; each team’s remaining six games will rotate among the remaining conference schools; and each team will face every other SEC program at least once every two years and every opponent home and away in four years.
SEC teams are required to schedule at least one additional nonconference game against a team from the ACC, Big 12 or Big Ten, or Notre Dame, an ACC member for most sports that remains a powerful independent in football.
“The SEC has established itself as the leader in delivering the most compelling football schedule in college athletics,” Sankey said in the release. “Fans will see traditional rivalries preserved, new matchups more frequently, and a level of competition unmatched across the nation.”