Why Alabama football could have a head start on pitched SEC vs. Big Ten scheduling pact MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Brian Kelly wants SEC football teams to play Big Ten teams. Speaking to a scrum of reporters at SEC Spring Meetings, the LSU football coach said a regular-season scheduling pact between the Big Ten and the SEC was discussed, one that Kelly said was widely supported. "Our first goal would be wanting to play Big Ten teams, as coaches, and I can speak for the room.
We want to play Big Ten schools. You’ve got to get a partner. You’ve got to get a partner who says, ‘We’re in for that, too.’ We’ve made our voice clear.
Our ADs know that, as well, that we would like that. Our commissioner obviously heard us, as well. The rest will be up to what gets negotiated.” Kelly later said the Big Ten "holds it on the SEC," with Michigan and Ohio State winning the last two national championships.
"We want to get challenged in that regard, and we’d like to be able to get that done," Kelly continued. "That is up to our commissioner and the ADs to see if that can happen or not, but that’s the wish of the (coaches).” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said he hadn't had discussions with the Big Ten directly related to Kelly's comments but gave "three ways" that conversations about a scheduling pact between the SEC and Big Ten could go. "One is you just stay out of it, kind of like we do now," Sankey said.
"The second is you try and facilitate more. The third is we agree both for a mandate. That third one is incredibly difficult."
Why Alabama football is ahead of curve on SEC vs Big Ten scheduling Alabama is ahead of the curve when it comes to scheduling Big Ten teams. The Crimson Tide started a home-and-home series against Wisconsin in 2024-25, beating the Badgers 42-10 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison Sept. 14. Alabama also has non-conference home-and-home series on its books against Ohio State in 2027-28 and Minnesota in 2032-33, two in a series of non-conference matchups scheduled against teams like West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Florida State, which starts a home-and-home against the Crimson Tide Aug. 30.
On May 27, Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne said home-and-home series with teams like Ohio State and Minnesota were scheduled in a response to SEC teams playing an eight-game conference schedule. And if that SEC schedule were to expand to nine games, Byrne indicated that Alabama's future slate of non-conference games would be affected. "People want to debate all the time whether the rigors of the SEC schedule, how does that compare eight versus nine," Byrne said.
"On top of that, we play a lot of good non-conference games too, right? If we go to nine, that will be impacted for some schools. It will be impacted for us."
Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas and Vanderbilt each have future games scheduled against Big Ten opponents. Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
