With the additions of Texas and Oklahoma, the SEC had to modify its current scheduling model to fit in the new teams. Starting in 2024, the temporary solution they came up with is a division-less, eight-conference game schedule with one permanent opponent per team and seven rotating. The league chose that format over a nine-conference game solution with 3 permanent opponents and six rotating.
While both options would allow teams to play in every venue in the SEC, they would create two completely different futures for the conference. Arkansas’ future, and the SEC’s in general, will be bleak if they continue with the 2024 model.
PROS
Mid-Major games at home
Of course, the eight-game schedule isn’t without its advantages. With four non-conference games Arkansas would still play a mid-major team, effectively giving them an extra bye week. Followers of other conferences complain about juggernauts like Alabama and Georgia playing FCS teams in November, but that’s not a reason to move to nine games. Alabama playing Austin Peay in November had nothing to do with the 45-20 beating it gave Kansas St in the Sugar Bowl. The SEC shouldn’t feel pressure from outside conferences to go to nine games, and neither should Arkansas. Playing a Mid-Major also ensures another home game to generate revenue.
Variety
Another plus for some is the variety of games the eight-game schedule would bring. Practically, every two years Arkansas would be given a new schedule. Fans would see the Hogs face more teams in a shorter amount of time than ever before. The only consistent game Arkansas would play is the one permanent rival given to it by the conference.
CONS
Lack of consistency
Playing a variety of games is great, but what’s the point of a conference when you play one permanent opponent a year? Sure, Arkansas gets the money from being in the league and the “honor” of being in the almighty SEC, but that’s where it stops. An eight-conference game schedule essentially turns the league into a confederation of glorified independent athletic programs.
With nine games, Arkansas would have three permanent opponents but still play every team in the SEC in four years with a two-year rotation. It’s the same outcome, just a different formula. The only difference would be some semblance of consistency. But why is consistency so important?
One permanent rival
John Nabors of the Locked On Razorbacks Podcast has said that Arkansas has no legitimate rival it just hates everyone. The statement, in spirit, is true. If you ask any ten Razorback fans which team in the SEC is Arkansas’ rival, you’d probably get four to six different answers. However, an SEC East team would seldom be at the top of any Razorback fan’s most hated list. Why? Consistency breeds rivalry.
Playing opponents year after year fosters the “hate” needed to create the type of game fans love. Arkansas and Ole Miss are not perineal powerhouses by any stretch of the imagination, but the teams produce electric games year after year; games like the “4th and 25” classic in 2015 or 2021’s shootout in Oxford. LSU is consistently better than Arkansas, but when they meet on the gridiron, anything can happen. With only one permanent rival, all that goes away.
And who would be Arkansas’ permanent opponent? You guessed it… Missouri. Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek has already stated that the only SEC team guaranteed to be on Arkansas’ schedule is Mizzou in 2024. It’s not hard to see that they’ll be the Razorbacks’ annual opponent if the league decides to stay with eight conference games.
No yearly Texas game
The SEC has already foisted a made-up rivalry on Arkansas. An eight-conference game format would then take away Arkansas’ ability to play real rivalries annually, much less rekindle old ones.
One of the most anticipated aspects of the SEC’s expansion was the chance to bring back the historic rivalry between Arkansas and Texas. Arkansas’ beatdown of Texas in 2021 gave fans a taste of what it would be like to play them year in and year out. If Arkansas plays Texas according to the proposed schedule, 2021’s game would be as good as it gets.
When it comes to making a good rivalry, it takes two to tango. The younger generation of Texas fans doesn’t have the same feelings about the Razorbacks as maybe some older ones do. When Arkansas left the SWC for the SEC it had no true rival. Fans, in turn, held onto and passed down the rivalry from generation to generation.
Texas, on the other hand, had rivalries with Oklahoma and other Texas schools to fall back on. The Arkansas/Texas rivalry will never reach SWC heights if the teams play twice every four years. At best, the rivalry would look like Arkansas vs LSU. It’s ok, but it’s not what Arkansas, Texas, and college football in general deserve.
The end of pomp and circumstance
Now why does any of that matter? Because that’s what college football is all about: the rivalries, the history, the game week social media wars. Pomp and circumstance are what make College football special. It differentiates the sport from pro leagues in a time when NIL rules the land. Still, even the NFL has a three-permanent opponent model. Consistency allows pomp and circumstance to flourish.
For years, the biggest critique of expanding the college football playoffs has been how it will affect the pomp and circumstance of the sport. Yet, in this particular situation, it’s crickets on social media. Adding four to eight games to a national playoff is nothing compared to obliterating rivalries and consistent conference play. A division-less, eight-conference game schedule is singlehandedly the most dangerous thing to the longevity of pomp and circumstance.
Critiques of a nine-conference game schedule
“Weaker” SEC
A nine-conference game schedule doesn’t come without a few setbacks. The SEC will most likely have fewer teams in the top 25. On “That SEC Podcast,” Co-founder of Matrix Analytical on Twitter, Dave Bartoo gave his thoughts on the subject. “My point of view comes from making the SEC look as strong as possible,” Bartoo said. “[If] I am the commissioner of the SEC, I want the SEC to look as good as possible come playoff time… and have as many top 25 matchups as possible.”
First, the problem with his point is that it’s contradictory. If the SEC intentionally creates an easier schedule to make the league “look” stronger at the end of the season, it sends a message of weakness to the rest of the country. If “looks” is what concerns you, an eight-game schedule should not be your choice.
However, he is correct. The AP will vote for more SEC teams in the Top 25 and more teams will be bowl eligible, but is it worth losing everything special about the SEC? The intangible things that only college football fans know about. Bartoo shrugs off fans’ desires by insinuating it’s just a sense of entitlement.
“Look, we get to control what we want. We all get instant gratification in our programming,” says Bartoo. “If everything else makes [fans] happy all the time, [they] want [their] conference to make [them] happy all the time. I think it’s a psychological thing.”
It could be that fans feel entitled to great games (I mean, they are just the reason the SEC brings in a boatload of revenue) or it could be that they don’t want to lose what makes the sport special.
Too brutal of a schedule
Later in the interview, Bartoo says the conference will “cannibalize itself” if it adds one more SEC game. He said nine-league games would intrinsically make every schedule harder. But is that true? For nearly every team in the conference, yes. Bartoo uses Mizzou as an example. The Tigers are already a bottom-tier recruiter in the SEC and have one of the easier schedules in the conference. Of course, Mizzou’s schedule would be harder. But what about Arkansas?
Yearly, Arkansas has a top 5 strength of schedule in the country. The Hogs have been locked in a division filled with top 25 teams every year for the last decade. Once the divisions are gone, Arkansas won’t play Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M, etc. every year. Greg Sankey said the 2024 schedule will be decided on “fairness and balance.” How much of that is true will be revealed on Wednesday, June 14th when the league releases the 2024 schedule, but it’s hard to believe that the schedule’s difficulty would be anywhere close to what Arkansas has already had, even with an extra league game.
Arkansas is still building
The football program has been through a lot in the last half-decade. Not only did Chad Morris leave Arkansas in disarray in 2019, but Arkansas was denied any semblance of normalcy because of COVID-19. The Hogs are just now getting back to pre-Morris stature, especially concerning depth. Mike Irwin of Pig Trail Nation echoed the sentiment on an episode of “Ask Mike.” Per one of his sources inside the program, Arkansas is fully against an nine-conference game schedule. Irwin states:
“We’re still trying to build our program up… We’re fixing to allow two traditional football powers into a league that’s already tough as it can be. We know how tough it is. Every week, there’s somebody that can beat you… And now, you’re going to throw Texas and Oklahoma in there?”
Of all the criticisms against a nine-game schedule, this one holds the most weight. Asking a program that has just gotten back on its proverbial feet to then play another league game per season is hard. However, with the way Arkansas recruiting is trending and the emergence of the transfer portal, Arkansas has every opportunity to rebuild, if necessary, with a nine-game schedule.
In an interview with Paul Finebaum, Hunter Yurachek made some interesting comments about the schedule. He made it seem like the university was ok with either decision. That may be true. However, Yurachek kept making comments about how “the eight-game formula has worked” and “with eight it’s not broke,” but that circumvents the entire problem. It’s not about what works, it’s about what’s best. A nine-game conference schedule is what works best for the SEC’s current situation. And if the SEC decides to stick with the eight-game format, it might as well change its slogan from “It just means more,” to “It just means less.”
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