With the SEC spring meetings under way in Destin, FL, there are plenty of questions for the conference teams to answer, but the biggest one may be the discussion of eight or nine conference games on the schedule. Auburn football head coach Hugh Freeze and the rest of conference representatives present will have a lot to debate over the next few days.
Things will change in a big way for the SEC in 2024 with the new additions of Texas and Oklahoma, expanding the conference from 14 teams to 16, and it will have an impact on yearly scheduling for SEC football programs.
As far as Hugh Freeze is concerned, he wants what is best for Auburn football. And that means considering that SEC teams regularly play harder schedules than teams in other conferences, leaving the door open for more losses. How will the selection committee view an SEC team that has lost three conference games against, say, an ACC team that has lost three conference games?
"“From a football coach’s perspective, the biggest question I would have is: As important as those games are to us, how does the playoff look at it?” Freeze said. “If you’re an SEC opponent and you’re really quality and you’ve won a lot of good games, but you dropped two to top teams, or a third one, do you still get in when the playoff expands?”"
According to the Montgomery Advertiser, Freeze is trying to remain mostly uninvolved in the discussions because, ultimately, he will not get a vote—it will be up to presidents and chancellors. The Tigers’ head coach went on to say that he values playing high level games and he knows that the fans do, too, so he hopes to continue coaching high-stakes contests but also wants what is best for Auburn football.