STARKVILLE — With fewer than 100 days before Mississippi State football kicks off its season at Davis Wade Stadium against Southeast Louisiana on Sep. 2, Southeastern Conference leaders continue to discuss the future of the league over 300 miles away.
This year’s SEC spring meetings began this week in Destin, Florida, with NIL, transfer rules and future scheduling among the hot topics.
One of those, how the SEC plans to handle its conference scheduling when Texas and Oklahoma join in fall 2024, is heading toward a resolution by the end of the week, according to reporters on site.
“I would prefer to not continue to circle the airport with the plane,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told ESPN Monday.
Currently, the SEC uses an eight-game conference schedule, with six division games plus two rotating cross-divisional games. The conference, however, will eliminate its two-division structure with the additions of the Longhorns and Sooners.
Two new proposed formats include an eight-game schedule, with one common opponent each season and a rotating schedule for the other seven games, or a nine-game schedule with three common opponents and six rotating games.
How does this affect Mississippi State?
The eight-game schedule would be used to preserve the SEC’s premier rivalries.
For MSU that would mean retaining the Egg Bowl against Ole Miss, but losing annual games against Arkansas, and LSU.
A nine-game schedule would preserve many of the conference’s secondary rivalries as well as proximity matchups. Speculation about MSU’s three annual opponents includes Ole Miss and then two of Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M and Kentucky.
The draw for a nine-game schedule would be to get more of these premiere matchups on the schedule every year, though according to reports, numerous head coaches and athletic directors, including MSU’s Zac Selmon, are against it because it opens SEC teams up to more potential losses, which could affect College Football Playoff selections when the field expands to 12 teams next season.
Also, a nine-game conference schedule would cause logistical issues across the conference when it comes to future non-conference games that are already scheduled, as many of these games would have to be shifted or canceled altogether to make room for an additional conference game.
Whatever Sankey and his constituents decide, a decision is expected to be made sooner rather than later. Proposals will be referred to athletic directors for approval Thursday before school presidents vote Friday.
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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