SEC could change schedule philosophy once Texas, OU arrive

When a chorus of boos showered down from the crowd at the Swamp as Alabama players ran onto the field Saturday, it marked the first time the Crimson Tide had been to Gainesville since Oct. 1, 2011.

The two top football programs in the SEC have appeared in 13 championship games apiece, yet hadn’t faced each other in the regular season in a decade.

Such scheduling quirks are a problem the SEC hopes to address as it expands.

“This is a huge opportunity and the Texas-ou situation provides a great opportunity for us to dig in and look at how we schedule from a football standpoint. We need more variety,” Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin said. “Of our eight SEC games right now, seven are the same each year in a 14-team league. It makes no sense. I know why we do it but we have to get creative.”

The Gators haven’t played at Auburn’s Jordan-hare Stadium since 2011.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said the league is studying ways to fix such issues with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma set for July 1, 2025. “Let’s take a step back, let’s think big picture,” he said. “Let’s figure out how to rotate teams through campus and then what does that allow? I haven’t excluded anything beyond that.”

Florida isn’t the only SEC program missing some of these star-studded matchups. Georgia hasn’t traveled to College Station to take on Texas A&M since the Aggies joined the SEC in 2012 and the Bulldogs’ next scheduled trip isn’t until 2024.