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- The SEC will move to a nine-game conference football schedule starting in 2026.
- The decision was approved by SEC athletic directors and university presidents, driven by the addition of Texas and Oklahoma.
- Florida AD Scott Stricklin highlighted the increased exposure and revenue potential of the expanded schedule.
- The change requires SEC teams to play at least ten power conference games annually, impacting future non-conference scheduling.
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin is excited about the move next season to a nine-game SEC football schedule.
Appearing on Gator Talk with Sean Kelley on WRUF (AM 850, FM 98.1) on August 21, Stricklin said the decision to go to nine games was agreed upon by SEC ADs earlier this week in Birmingham, Ala., before being approved by presidents of the 16 member schools.
“Really ever since the news broke that Texas and Oklahoma were coming to our league and our league was going from 14 to 16 teams, this has been a point of conversation,” Stricklin said on WRUF. “The SEC has been in eight games since it expanded in 1992 when Arkansas and South Carolina came in to take the league to 12, but we stayed at eight when we expanded to 14 with Missouri and (Texas) A&M but when we got to 16, it felt like something we really ought to study.”
Stricklin said despite lack of clarity regarding how it would impact SEC teams getting into the College Football Playoff, the league decided to move forward with the nine-game schedule.
“It felt like the right thing to do for the long term benefit of the Southeastern Conference,” Stricklin said. “You think about the strength of this league, it is behind the NFL on a per-broadcast standpoint the second-most viewed sports entity in this country, SEC football is ahead of the NBA, ahead of Major League Baseball, NHL, you go down the list. As strong as it is, there will come a time when the SEC will talk about positioning itself in the marketplace and so the more we lean into that strength, people have an insatiable appetite for SEC football.”
Stricklin said there will be benefits for Florida football fans, including the Florida Gators playing in every SEC football stadium over the next four seasons (2026-29) and playing every team in the league twice during the four-year span. That will include more frequent matchups with Auburn, a former Gator rival with a stadium within a five-hour drive of UF’s campus. Florida has only played four times against Auburn since 2006 and hasn’t played at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium on The Plains since 2011.
“That’s guaranteed to happen twice in a four-year period, at the very least,” Stricklin said of a home-and-home series with Auburn.
In addition, Sticklin said the nine-game schedule will ensure an equal number of home-and-road SEC games for Florida going forward, with it annual neutral site game against Georgia in Jacksonville (but moving to Atlanta in 2026 and Tampa in 2027 due to Jacksonville’s stadium renovation) as the ninth game.
What SEC going to nine games means for future Florida football schedules
The SEC’s decision to move to nine games will force some adjustments in future Florida football schedules. The SEC is requiring its schools to play one additional power conference game out of conference, for a minimum of 10 power conference games total. Florida can fill that easily with its annual rival game at the end of the season with ACC foe Florida State.
In 2026, Florida has non-conference games scheduled with Florida Atlantic, Campbell and Florida State. And in 2027, the Gators are slated to face South Alabama, Charleston Southern and FSU in non-conference. But in 2028, Florida is over-booked, with a schedule that includes power conference opponents Arizona State, Colorado and Florida State, along with Furman. Florida has a return game at Colorado and FSU scheduled for 2029.
“We’ll have to have some conversations,” Stricklin told the Gainesville Sun on Thursday night. “I think there is one year where we’re over-booked as it is and there is some others where we’ll have to make some adjustments. We’ll figure that out. But we’re committed to playing 10 power conference games every year going forward and we need to make sure we balance that with what makes sense for the Gators.”
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com
