On July 16th, Southeastern Conference officially welcomes Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC making it a 16 league team. SEC Associate Commissioner Herb Vincent says Texas and O-U officially accepted invitations into the SEC in July of 2021, so the league has had plenty of time to prepare.
“It means a new era for the Southeastern Conference but its been three years. It give us a lot of time to analyze schedules and to establish rules around having sixteen teams instead of 14 teams.”
One big change will be the SEC Baseball Tournament. All 16 teams will go to Hoover, Alabama for the tourney and it will be single elimination throughout. I will personally miss the double-elimination portion of the tournament.
But the baseball conference schedule will remain 30 games. The men’s basketball conference schedule also stays at 18 games, while most other major conferences play 20 league games.
Football is also staying with an eight-game league schedule, through at least 2025.
“We’re still talking about the football schedule whether it’s going to be eight or nine conference games, we got that established for 2024 and 2025, but 2026 and going forward that still has to be discussed and finalized,” Vincent said.
The 2024-25 athletic season also marks a new television deal for the Southeastern Conference as the league is no longer partners with CBS. The 2:30 Saturday afternoon football games will now air on ABC.
