The SEC's era of scheduling comfort is officially over. After years of playing eight conference games while winning national championships at a historic clip, the conference finally added a ninth league game this fall, and the coaches who will have to navigate the new reality aren't exactly hiding their concerns.
The move was supposed to come with something in return. Coaches say they were led to believe the additional game would push the College Football Playoff from 12 to 16 teams. It didn't. "Talking to the other coaches, they felt like by going to nine games, they felt like it would shift the playoff model (to 16), but it didn't," Florida coach Jon Sumrall said. "They felt misled."
The financial incentive was real, at least. Each school is set to receive roughly $5 million from ESPN for the additional game. But the competitive costs could outweigh the cash. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian called the schedule "a gauntlet." That label holds up against the data.
Like it or not, the SEC's nine-game experiment starts now, and several coaches had plenty more to say about what that means for their programs.
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