Eight SEC football games is all UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart wants to have his team play. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart didn’t try to hide his feelings about where Kentucky stood on upcoming Southeastern Conference football scheduling during his press conference Friday.
With Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC next season, the SEC is sticking with an eight-game league format in 2024 with no divisions. However, there is a strong push by many to go to nine league games in 2025 — a move Barnhart and UK coach Mark Stoops are against.
“Absolutely accurate. I’m a believer in eight games,” Barnhart said Friday when asked about his eight-game SEC preference.
Georgia and Auburn are among the SEC schools pushing for a nine-game schedule. Alabama has been reported to be one of the schools along with Kentucky preferring an eight-game league format like it has been.
“I believe in eight for a lot of reasons,” Barnhart said. “I believe in eight because ours is a hard league; the wear and tear on our student athletes. Those four games that we have a chance to schedule (against non-SEC teams) doesn’t mean they are not difficult games, but the separation for an SEC game is a challenge.
“To throw in nine (SEC games) and have another A5 game, if we’re mandated to keep that game, that would be 10 and we would only have two choices to find other games to play.”
The SEC has mandated that teams play at least one of the other four games against a Power Five conference team (Louisville is Kentucky’s current foe).
Whether the mandate to play a Power Five conference team would remain if the SEC goes to nine league games remains to be seen.
