When Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC in 2025, a reconfiguration of the football schedule will need to take place as the conference will then contain 16 members.
Scheduling formats and how the SEC could handle realignment – i.e., keep or throw away divisions – were hot button topics during the league’s annual spring meetings last week in Destin, Florida. It’s likely the SEC will ditch divisions, as a crop of conferences like the Pac-12 have already done so following the NCAA no longer requiring conference championship games.
The SEC has been kicking around division-less eight- and nine-game conference schedule models. The eight-game format would have one permanent opponent for each school and seven games against a rotation of opponents; the nine-game schedule would contain three permanent and six rotating opponents.
While the coaches and administrators debated and discussed the oncoming growth and potential methods, no plan was officially announced for football.
How would each potential scheduling realignment affect South Carolina? And which one should Gamecocks fans root for? Let’s examine.
SEC football schedule with eight games, no divisions
The 1-7 format would most likely allow South Carolina to maintain its longstanding rivalry showdown with Clemson at the end of every regular season.
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It opens up chances to see former SEC West divisions teams far more often for the Gamecocks. They would play the remaining 14 teams once every two seasons and have to travel to each school once in a four-year cycle. Players getting an opportunity to play every team during their eligibility has been a scheduling talking point for years in the SEC, and this model would alleviate that.