With Texas and Oklahoma soon to join the SEC, the conference has reportedly been mulling the idea of having an eight- or even nine-game conference schedule. After all, come the 2024 season, the SEC will be a 16-school conference.
More conference games will mean more tough games on a yearly basis because the SEC is still and projects to continue to be the best football conference in the nation. While that may make some coaches weary (Nick Saban, for one, told Sports Illustrated he didn’t like the idea of having permanent opponents on a year-in, year-out basis), LSU head coach Brian Kelly says bring on the challenge.
In fact, non-SEC programs apparently bore him.
“I’ve been in this for three decades, and no disrespect to any of the other schools that we play outside of the SEC, but they just don’t excite me,” Kelly recently said, per ESPN’s Heather Dinich. “I want to play the best. I came down here to the SEC because I wanted to play against Alabama. I want to play A&M. I want to play Auburn, the great teams, and in our new scheduling we get to play Alabama every year, Ole Miss every year and A&M, and that’s really why I came down here. I want to play those games, and I think playing nine SEC games is great for your schedule, and it prepares you for the opportunity to play for a championship but also play for the national championship.”
Ric Flair used to say that in order to be the man you’ve got to beat the man, and that’s certainly the mindset Kelly is approaching these potential schedule changes with. as far as Saban’s concerns about playing more SEC teams every year?
Kelly doesn’t seem to keen on counting the seven-time national championship coach out.
“I think everybody has their take on the schedules,” he said. “Nick has never backed down from a challenge. I’m not too worried about whether Nick Saban is going to have his team ready when he plays LSU. He’ll be ready.”
ESPN is reporting that the SEC is expecting a new scheduling model for 2024 and beyond to be locked in by the conference’s annual spring meetings.
