What the new SEC schedule proposal means for Arkansas football
The SEC is king in college football. Commissioner Greg Sankey, who some would call the most powerful man in college sports, announced that each school in the SEC received $50 million from the 2021-22 fiscal year a month ago.
That isn’t the most significant news heading into the spring football season and the league meeting in May. Sankey hopes to see the SEC with a nine-game conference schedule in 2024 to give each team three permanent conference opponents.
Of course, this is in response to Texas and Oklahoma announcing they will leave the Big 12 and join the SEC, jumping the conference to 16 teams.
It’s easy to see how the additions of Texas and Oklahoma make the SEC more glorious than it already is, but the Razorbacks may have trouble finding three schools to link up with.
This potential matchmaking project will come down to which perms make the most sense on the bottom line. Unfortunately, Arkansas may be without dance partners or matchups that don’t generate television revenue which we all know is king in college football.
According to sources, Arkansas’s potential dancing partners are Missouri, Ole Miss, and Texas. Ole Miss and Texas, of course, bring TV value, but the decision will be left to the athletic directors and league officials by way of votes.
Texas and Ole Miss have natural rivalries in the SEC, which the Hogs are missing. We’ve seen the SEC try to push the rivalry with Missouri, but it’s not a true rivalry. LSU, who is more of a rival than Missouri, could be a potential perm for the Razorbacks, but they are slated to have battles with Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Alabama.
Depending on how the meetings go, the Hogs will likely have to find their perm in the SEC East division with the likes of South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and Tennessee.
While this may seem minor, as I stated before, finding the right set of perms could lead to financial glory in the SEC or abandonment from the SEC’s leading TV partner, ESPN.
