COLUMBIA, Mo. — A clear picture on future football schedules should finally emerge this week when coaches, athletics directors and campus leaders gather in Destin, Florida, for the annual Southeastern Conference spring meetings. With Oklahoma and Texas set to join the SEC in the fall of 2024, conference members have spent more than a year debating various scheduling models under both eight- and nine-game formats.
SEC teams have played eight conference games dating back to 1992 when the league expanded to 12 teams and split into Eastern and Western divisions. The SEC stuck with the eight-game format in 2012 when Missouri and Texas A&M joined the league, but with the Sooners and Longhorns scheduled to arrive next year — their campus leaders will attend this week’s meetings in Destin — the SEC has explored adding a ninth conference game and dissolving the current two division format.