The SEC announced it will move to a nine conference game season for the 2026 football season on Thursday, following in the footsteps of the Big Ten and Big 12 Conferences. UCLA and the rest of the college football world are processing a major change in the sport.
That means the games that college football fans are privy to should be much more competitive because the teams will be forced to go against equal competition instead of just punching down and stacking up easy wins. College Sports Wire has more about the SEC’s big transition:
“Adding a ninth SEC game underscores our universities’ commitment to delivering the most competitive football schedule in the nation,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a release. “This format protects rivalries, increases competitive balance, and paired with our requirement to play an additional Power opponent, ensures SEC teams are well prepared to compete and succeed in the College Football Playoff.”
This should be a joyous occasion for college football fans, but with it will come scrutiny for other conferences which have inferior models.
Blake Toppmeyer of the USA TODAY Network brought up the point of conference members being allowed to play weaker teams to have an easier schedule, like Penn State clobbering the likes of Nevada, Florida International and Villanova.
Toppmeyer is right that the Big Ten needs to ensure its programs face tougher competition to make better quality games for fans. In a perfect world, no game would be chalked up as a win before both teams even stepped on the field. Excellence should be earned on and off the field rather than given to quality teams punching down rather than up.
With that in mind, the SEC’s new model will make it harder for teams to punch up, because the SEC is now limiting its schools to two games that would be conference opponents or a Power Four team. That means teams like UCLA, which have had a lot of success against the SEC in the past, would have a tougher chance to go against one of the big dogs in the SEC to reestablish itself as a college football contender.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: What does the SEC moving to nine games mean for UCLA and the Big Ten?
Reporting by Ryan Lorenz, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
