DESTIN, Fla. -- SEC presidents and chancellors held off on a vote regarding the league's future football scheduling model at the SEC Spring Meetings in 2022.
With a schedule for the 2024 season due soon, they can't hold off much longer.
Football scheduling will once again be the chief topic when administrators and coaches convene at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort this week for the next round of meetings that begin today. This time, representatives from Oklahoma and Texas will attend in non-voting roles. Those schools are scheduled to join the SEC on July 1, 2024.
League leaders might vote Friday whether to implement an eight- or nine-game conference schedule for 2024 and beyond. SEC teams have played eight conference games since the league expanded to 12 teams in 1992, adding Arkansas and South Carolina.
The SEC kept the eight-game schedule after it expanded to 14 teams with the additions of Texas A&M and Missouri in 2012. The arrival of Texas and Oklahoma will give the SEC 16 teams.
The eight-game format figures to include games against one permanent opponent and seven rotating opponents each season. The nine-game slate would likely mean each school will be given three fixed opponents with the other six rotated.
Arkansas football Coach Sam Pittman has suggested he is open to both scheduling options. Recent reporting from Brandon Marcello of 247 Sports indicates Arkansas supports the eight-game model.
Backing for a nine-game model has reportedly cooled as meetings are set to begin.
"I think it's going to be fair regardless of if it's eight or nine," Pittman said. "I think everybody is going to get to play everyone home and away over a four-year period. I like that about what the league did. You come in as a freshman, you stay for four years, you're going to be in every stadium in the league."
The SEC requires its football teams to schedule at least one nonconference game against another Power 5 school each season. That requirement might go away if teams are required to play nine conference games.
"I think it will go away," Pittman said. "That doesn't mean we won't play Notre Dame in [2025 and 2028]. I think the requirement of you doing it, I think that will go away."
In addition to the Notre Dame series, the Razorbacks have marquee nonconference games scheduled against Oklahoma State, Utah and Texas Tech between 2024-33. If the SEC requires an additional conference game each season, Marcello reported 12 schools in the league would need to reschedule as many as 38 nonconference games through 2037.
"We're not afraid to play anybody," Pittman said. "It's hard to play eight games in a row when you're playing top 20 teams every week. It's physically hard. It becomes what is your depth at some point. I'm all for either one of [the models], but you do have to look at your nonconference schedule and say, 'OK, if we go to nine, what are we going to do with the three?'
"For the fans, I think if you stay at eight, you're going to get a [non-SEC] team that they know that's going to be able to come in and play us in our stadium. Would they rather us in nine have Florida come in here, or would they rather us have Notre Dame come in here?"
A March report by Sports Illustrated stated Alabama football Coach Nick Saban, a long-time advocate for a nine-game league schedule, wanted more balance in a nine-game model. The Crimson Tide are expected to get Tennessee, Auburn and LSU as fixed opponents as part of a nine-game schedule.
Arkansas would be expected to play Missouri, Texas and Ole Miss each season as part of a nine-game schedule, sources said. The Razorbacks would play Missouri each year as part of an eight-game schedule, Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek previously said.
Marcello reported seven SEC teams are in favor of the nine-game model. Four oppose it and three are on the fence.
Texas and Oklahoma, accustomed to nine conference games each year in the Big 12, reportedly prefer that number of SEC games, too.
"I like playing more SEC games," Saban told Sports Illustrated. "I think it's good for the game and good for the fans. I think they have a better chance to get the parity right doing the eight games. I'm talking about the balance of who has who."
Texas A&M Athletic Director Ross Bjork is for nine games, he recently told The Associated Press, while Kentucky AD Mitch Barhart reportedly prefers eight games plus an annual nonconference game against Louisville from the ACC.
Matt Jones of wholehogsports.com contributed to this report