The Southeastern Conference on Tuesday released the framework for regular season scheduling and/or championship formats in five sports: baseball; gymnastics; volleyball; indoor track and field; and swimming and diving.
According to the SEC, conference presidents and chancellors approved the scheduling plans and formats last week during the men’s basketball tournament in Nashville, Tennessee.
The change in formats was necessitated by Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC for the 2024-25 athletic year.
Starting in 2025, the baseball regular season would continue to include 30 regular season SEC games spread out over 10 three-game series. Each school would play two permanent opponents in baseball and eight rotating opponents, meaning the number of teams a school doesn’t play each regular season would increase from three to five. Currently teams’ permanent opponents are from within their home division.
As is the plan for football starting with the 2024 season, the SEC will do away with East and West divisions in baseball and go to what is being called a single-division format.
Still to be determined is a format for the SEC baseball tournament. The current format includes 12 teams.
Previously, regular season and championship formats for what will be a 16-team SEC were approved for men’s and women’s basketball, softball, soccer and men’s and women’s tennis. The formats for men’s and women’s golf, outdoor track and field, equestrian and men’s and women’s cross country will be able to accommodate the addition of Texas and OU without changes, the SEC said.
Still not officially determined is a regular-season scheduling format for football. The Advocate has learned that a nine-game schedule of SEC football games is the favorite to be adopted, with LSU to retain current SEC West rivals Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M as permanent opponents. LSU would play the other 12 SEC teams on a rotating, home and home basis.
A football schedule format is expected to be announced sometime between now and the SEC Spring Meeting in late May.
Gymnastics
Oklahoma will give the SEC a ninth gymnastics school (Texas does not currently have gymnastics). Each SEC team will have dual meets against the other conference teams on an alternating home and home basis, increasing the number of SEC meets from seven to eight.
With the addition of Oklahoma for the 2025 gymnastics season, the SEC Championships will move from a one-day to a two-day format. The top seed will receive a bye, while the other eight teams are placed in two four-team semifinals. The two session winners and the team with the next best score in the semifinals will advance to a four-team championship.
Next year’s SEC championship in New Orleans will still be a one-day event held on March 23, 2024.
Volleyball
The SEC will conduct a conference tournament for the first time since 2005. Still to be determined is whether the tournament will resume in 2024 or 2025.
The regular-season scheduling format remains to be determined.
Swimming and diving
The SEC will schedule two dual meets per program consistent with the current process. The SEC championships will retain the current format but with updated facility requirements.
Indoor track and field
During the regular season, schools will continue to schedule other SEC teams at their discretion as they currently do.
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