For most of them, it’s an easier game than adding a top-tier SEC opponent to the schedule. I looked at the Power 5 or major independent opponents that SEC programs will play in 2024. They just are more likely to get fired with the latter.Īnother league game means another loss for half of the league’s coaches. There are some overlapping interests - more revenue means more money for coaching salaries - but SEC coaches will get paid whether there’s an eight- or nine-game schedule. The league’s coaches primarily care about keeping their jobs. There is one SEC constituency that is concerned about something other than league revenue. Gone are the days that a powerhouse like Georgia ends up with less than CFP money than, say, Colorado. Now, each team in the Power 5 conferences will get roughly the same payout. Previously, each Power 5 conference got the same amount of money that was split among league members regardless of league size. ESPN paid $450 million per year for CFP rights in 20 and the CFP adopted a new revenue distribution model that benefits SEC programs. Considering the history of SEC teams in the CFP, that’s pretty much guaranteed money as opposed to the hypothetical ESPN cash from a nine-game schedule. One fewer difficult game for the league’s teams means a better collective chance of making the expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff field. Right now, there’s more money for the SEC in an eight-game league schedule. The SEC can better renegotiate a deal for a nine-league schedule when ESPN isn’t downsizing. Explore SEC sticks with 8-game football schedule for 2024 season ESPN announced dozens of layoffs in April as part of Disney’s mandate to eliminate 7,000 jobs companywide. Disney said revenue from domestic cable dropped 4%. The Walt Disney Company recently announced that revenue for its networks, including ESPN, decreased 7% in the past quarter. The network isn’t in a good position to pay more for media rights. If the SEC had decided to expand to nine games now, it would have done so without the assurances that more revenue would be coming from ESPN.

No way is ESPN getting more games without paying the SEC more money. The league negotiated its media-rights contract with ESPN in 2020 with the league’s current structure of 14 teams and eight interconference games. Sankey’s grandiose pronouncement aside, standing still is good for the SEC in this case because it makes financial sense. It’s pretty much the schedule status quo for at least one more year, with the exception of the divisions going away.

Schedule status slack