The New SEC is a Mixed Bag
By Mark Nagi
Time waits for none of us, and that includes the world of collegiate athletics.
The Southeastern Conference, which announced a couple of years ago the additions of Texas and Oklahoma, announced its SEC schedule for the 2024 season, which also happens to be when the Longhorns and the Sooners join the league.
Despite now having 16 teams, the SEC is sticking with an eight-game football conference schedule. This is welcome news to Nick Saban at Alabama, who spent the past few months politicking to make sure that his game against Western Montana A&T State isn’t affected. Every SEC school can keep a profitable non-conference contest that fans don’t want.
The TV money is such a large factor it is hard to imagine the SEC staying at eight games much longer. Eventually, the league will go to nine football games. But in terms of those eight SEC games in 2024, Tennessee will host Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, and Mississippi State, while traveling to Arkansas, Georgia, Vanderbilt, and newcomer Oklahoma.
The SEC will also abandon divisional play, with the top two teams playing for the conference championship. If this had been the case in 2022, the Vols would have played Georgia for the SEC title.
Of course, this isn’t the first time the SEC has seen some change. Sewanee left in 1940, Georgia Tech bolted in 1964 and Tulane departed in 1966. Back in 1992, the SEC grew from 10 to 12 with the additions of Arkansas and South Carolina. Then in 2012, Missouri and Texas A&M expanded the conference’s footprint. Which leads us to Texas and Oklahoma next season.
Yes, the SEC looks much different than it did at the time of its founding in 1932. And not everyone is happy about it.
With 16 teams it’ll be impossible to keep some football rivalries active on an annual basis. Alabama/Auburn, Florida/Georgia, Ole Miss/Mississippi State… those surely will be safe. But there could come a day when you do not see Alabama and Tennessee play every year. As it is in 2024 the South Carolina/Tennessee game is off the schedule for the first time in over three decades.
If there was sports talk radio back in the 1960s, I’m sure that fans would have flooded the airwaves to talk about how losing Georgia Tech and Tulane was going to bankrupt the league. Had Twitter been around in 1992, there would have been a #NoArkySC hashtag across the platform.
But there are some positives to the most recent expansion. First, now every SEC team will play in the others building at a minimum every four years. Since Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012, Tennessee has only played at Kyle Field once, with the Aggies only playing in Neyland Stadium once. You’ll get to see games like that more often.
Old Southwest Conference era rivalries like Texas vs. Texas A&M and Texas vs. Arkansas will be renewed too. Those rivalries are built on pure, unadulterated hate, so I’m excited to see them back. The first run through the conference will bring excitement when Oklahoma plays at Gainesville for the first time.
I’m not a fan of change for the sake of change. I understand the financial rationale behind the moves. The SEC is trying to stay at the top of the heap. They see the Big Ten and Big 12 making moves (I can’t wait for UCLA at Rutgers in Big Ten play!) and won’t be left behind.
Time waits for none of us.
