SEC Unfiltered: Why a 10-game conference schedule makes sense?

Welcome to SEC Unfiltered, the USA TODAY NETWORK's newsletter on SEC sports. Look for this newsletter in your inbox Monday through Friday. Today, Knoxville News Sentinel columnist John Adams takes over:

Commissioner Greg Sankey said last week the SEC plans to do away with divisional play in 2025 when Oklahoma and Texas join the conference.

That makes sense. Under the current two-divisional setup, schools can go way too long without playing programs outside their division. Sankey pointed out Missouri played at Auburn this season for the first time since it joined the conference in 2012.

Sankey made another significant point.

“During the pandemic (in 2020), we played 10 conference games and had on our SEC Network the highest viewership we had ever experienced,” he said. “We drew people in by playing each other with greater frequency.”

But that’s not the main reason viewership was up. In that 10-game, all-SEC season, fans weren’t subjected to so many one-sided nonconference matchups.

The league is expected to play nine conference games when it adds Oklahoma and Texas. But if nine conference games are good, wouldn’t 10 be better? Then, each school could play one attractive nonconference opponent and only game outside the league one that it could win by just showing up. Moreover, a 10-game SEC schedule would enable fans to see opposing conference teams more often.

And it could avoid an embarrassing schedule of games like last Saturday’s.

Alabama and Mississippi State played FCS opponents. LSU, Missouri, and Texas A&M played nonconference opponents with non-winning records.

Auburn’s game against Western Kentucky was the only nonconference matchup in which the SEC team wasn’t favored by at least 15 points. The Tigers were favored by six points against the Hilltoppers.

Most of the conference games weren’t attractive, either.

Tennessee was favored by 21 points over South Carolina. Georgia was favored by 22 over Kentucky. And Florida was favored by 14 over Vanderbilt.

The only SEC game with a single-digit point spread was Ole Miss vs. Arkansas. The Rebels were a two-point favorite.

The average margin of victory in Saturday's 10 games involving SEC teams was 24.3 points.

We’re coming down the stretch of the regular season in college football’s premier conference. Fan interest is peaking. But the schedule set the SEC up for a lopsided weekend.

That would be less likely to happen with a 10-game SEC schedule.