Texas AD: SEC Looking at Nine-Game Conference Schedule in 2026
Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte spoke with media on Tuesday evening at an annual town hall-style meeting, where he discussed the Longhorns’ much-anticipated move to the Southeastern Conference.
The move, which will officially take place on July 1, 2024, will open up an entirely new realm of financial opportunities for the Longhorns, as the SEC’s lucrative television deal is set to double what UT was earning in the Big 12.
When thinking about the move, Del Conte could barely contain his excitement.
“For us to go to the Southeastern Conference, I can’t tell you how excited I am,” Del Conte said Tuesday night, per Inside Texas.
Texas’s AD would go on to talk about a number of other topics pertaining to the SEC transition, but one of the most interesting discussions was how the league would handle future scheduling.
On top of saying that Big 12 teams will likely have to come to Austin to play Texas in the future, Del Conte also pulled back the curtain on the SEC’s plans for its future scheduling formula. Moving from an eight-game conference schedule to a nine-game slate has been a hot-button topic in SEC circles since conference realignment fired back up in 2021.
According to Inside Texas, Del Conte says that the changes are coming still, but it will be a couple of years before we see them.
“We have eight games scheduled right now,” Del Conte said. “We’re working on going to a nine-game schedule, but we have a ways to go with that. I would say this year we have an eight-game schedule. The following year, we have another eight-game schedule. Then we’ll look at going into a nine-game conference schedule.”
Potentially moving to a nine-game SEC schedule in 2026 could be what keeps Texas from ever going back to Lubbock, Waco, or Fort Worth for a nonconference game. If the Longhorns are already playing nine SEC teams, their nonconference slate will likely be matchups in front of a home crowd, if they can help it.
“If they want to come play here at Texas, I’m all in,” Del Conte said. “I’m not sure yet how we can do a home-and-home until I know how all that balances out.”
