AUSTIN, Texas — Even though the first game of the 2024 football season has yet to be kicked off, the Southeastern Conference has already announced its scheduling format for the 2025 season.
The SEC made the announcement on Wednesday, and the format was approved by a vote of the presidents and chancellors of all the SEC schools last week.
For eagle-eyed fans, this announcement may look incredibly similar to the 2024 schedule. That’s because all of the teams will play the same conference opponents in 2025 that they are scheduled to play in 2024. The only change will be flipping the home and away competition over the two seasons.
The 16 football teams in the SEC will play eight in-conference opponents and will also be required to play one additional game against a Power Five or major independent team of their choice.
The full schedule for the 2025 season will be announced at a later date.
In a statement, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said the scheduling format will continue to evolve after the 2025 season.
“We continue to monitor changes across college sports as they relate to future scheduling,” said Sankey. “Continuing with our current format for the 2025 season provides additional time to understand the impact of the changes happening around us as we determine the appropriate long-term plan for SEC football scheduling.”
SEC athletic directors and coaches have had differing opinions on whether the conference should move to a nine-game conference schedule.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban previously said he was in favor of adding an additional conference game, while Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart publicly supported eight.
SEC fans can look forward to some major changes coming this upcoming season, with Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference in July. Both Texas and Oklahoma are heading into the SEC with top-10 recruiting classes.
With the addition of those two teams, the SEC will get rid of the East and West divisions, and instead, the top two teams in the regular-season standings will compete in the SEC Championship Game. This change to the conference championship game comes along with the College Football Playoff expansion from four to 12 teams next season.