Missouri's Eliah Drinkwitz has said he is for the SEC playing a 9-game conference schedule. But how does he feel now that it's a reality?
Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz has said multiple times he is a fan of the SEC going to a nine-game conference schedule.
And he has repeatedly said that is because the focus of league-changing decisions should be what is best for the fans and what is best for the players. Instead of what is best monetarily.
But how does he feel now that a nine-game schedule is a reality?
“I changed my mind,” Drinkwitz said with a laugh. “… I don’t know, I said this at media days and I still believe it. The two most important factors of making decisions … is the fans and the players. And everything else is really secondary.”
Drinkwitz went on to say the focus on money has led to a lot of the issues college sports are currently facing.
Unintended consequences
But with every decision comes unexpected outcomes.
“I think from a fan standpoint, it’s awesome. I really do think that adding those games are great for the fans,” Drinkwitz said. “… It’s going to be a challenge, obviously. I think there’s going to be unintended consequences from increasing the schedule difficulties. … There’s going to be unintended consequences with having a four- and five-game rotation. Where you only have four conference home games and there’s going to be five conference road games.”
Add in that part of the change is requiring SEC teams to play at least one Power-4 game outside of conference play and you might look at a schedule that has just six home games. Which some might see as the expectation in a 12-game schedule. But the Tigers have eight home games scheduled this season. And they haven’t played fewer than seven home games in a season (outside of 2020 and the shortened season) since 2015. That year, Missouri played on the road at Arkansas State and faced BYU at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
“You could be looking at a six home game, six road game schedule,” Drinkwitz said. “Which would make no sense when we spent $250 million on a North End Zone project.”
That loss of revenue from one or two games does make a big difference. And the Tigers will need to buy a team out of scheduling agreements for the next five years. Plus likely in 2032 when Missouri both Illinois and Kansas on the schedule. That’s a lot of money out the door.
“I think there’s a lot of challenges there that we have to, you have to figure out and get right,” Drinkwitz said. “So, you know, it’s not exactly like they’re giving us a lot of time to do that.”
Conference schedule changes
But the conference must figure out more things before next year than the school. The SEC needs to decided the three teams that will be permanent opponents for each school.
“We don’t even know who our three permanents are,” Drinkwitz said.
And the conference will need to work out how the nine-game schedule works. Whether it will begin in Week 3, leaving open the usual SEC late-season out-of-conference slot, or just start it in Week 4 and have the rest of the season be conference play.
But the Tigers have more pressing things to focus on first.
“I do think there’s a lot of unintended consequences that, hopefully, that everybody was aware of on that stuff,” Drinkwitz said. “We’ll go from there. But I will say this. I just hope we get through this season first. Because there’s no guarantee of anything for next year, right?”
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Category: General Sports
