In yet another move to help secure a bigger place in the College Football Playoff, the SEC has moved to a nine-game conference schedule for football.

In expanding from an eight-game slate per team, in place since 1992, the SEC will match formats used by the Big Ten and Big 12. The move arrives as the College Football Playoff also said this week that it will take strength of schedule into greater account in its rankings.

The new SEC format will see the conference continue to have a single-standings, non-divisional structure. Teams will each play three fixed annual opponents, with an eye toward preserving traditional rivalries, while the remaining six conference games per year will rotate among the other members. Each SEC school will face every other one at least once every two years, and in both home and away settings every four years. 

Given the regular placement of SEC teams in national college football rankings, expanding the amount of in-conference play is the simplest, and likely most effective, way to amplify that strength-of-schedule metric. SEC teams, however, will still be required to schedule at least one game per year against a team from the ACC, Big Ten, or Big 12—unless they play independent Notre Dame. 

“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,” conference commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. 

The new football schedule will take effect in 2026. Leaders within the SEC and the individual schools had been debating the structure for several years. With the switch, however, the SEC is in line to receive additional rights fees from ESPN, with estimates hovering around $5 million per school, per year.

Bigger Considerations

The move, however, is also happening as the SEC, like other major conferences, tries to secure maximum positions within the CFP, and potential moves there helped prompt the SEC’s internal move. While there is general consensus for increasing the current 12-team format to 16, disagreement continues over how automatic berths would be allocated. 

Fellow power conference the Big Ten, meanwhile, has informally considered a CFP structure as large as 28 teams. While that idea has drawn widespread rebukes, it would also bring college football closer to the March Madness elements of college basketball. 

The ACC still has its teams play eight games per year within the conference, but according to multiple reports, that conference is expected to follow suit and move to nine games as well. With 17 teams in the ACC, however, the math around enlarged in-conference play is more complex, and commissioner Jim Phillips has said some traditional rivalries between SEC and ACC schools could be at risk.

The A’s are not just moving dirt around in Las Vegas, as some have suggested, and they say there will be visible progress on their planned ballpark in the coming weeks.

Two months after a high-profile stadium groundbreaking along the famed Las Vegas Strip, club officials told the Las Vegas Stadium Authority that several key development milestones are planned for between now and November, including the beginning of vertical construction. Already, foundation pilings have been installed as part of extensive preparatory work. Hundreds of construction workers are now active on the site each day, the club said.

“I would hope that we start seeing [vertical work] by the end of September, or early October,” A’s president Marc Badain told the authority. “Some of that prep work has already been done, but there’s obviously so many things you can do until the permitting is in place. But as soon as we get that, we’ll see the concrete get poured, and some of the decks will get poured. There’s rebar in place, so you’ll get to see the foundation of the building start to take shape.”

The stadium remains targeted to open in early 2028. In the meantime, the A’s are playing in Sacramento, where there have been numerous operational challenges, and the club has sunk to last place in the American League West division despite heightened spending on players relative to prior years. Oakland ranks 26th in MLB with a luxury-tax payroll of $111.6 million. 

Financial Concerns

The forthcoming stadium, meanwhile, is certain to approach $2 billion in final cost, if not surpass it, something generally anticipated after the A’s unveiled the rather unconventional “spherical armadillo” design last year. Prior cost projections had started at $1.5 billion, and then moved to $1.75 billion.

The A’s and owner John Fisher are responsible for all costs beyond the $380 million in previously approved public support. There has been a lengthy consideration of selling stakes in the club, but regardless of the final outcome there, Badain said the costs will be covered. 

The team has already signed Aramark Sports + Entertainment as a club investor, and that company will also be the ballpark’s concessionaire. 

“What John committed to was that there would be a public contribution, and he would make sure that the rest was available,” said stadium authority chair Steve Hill. “Nothing has changed along those lines.”