Insider reveals SEC mulls move to 20-game basketball schedule for 2025-26; a step toward aligning with other major conferences

The Southeastern Conference is reportedly considering a significant change to its basketball schedule for the 2025-26 season. The SEC plans to have a 20-game regular season schedule, similar to other major conferences.

CBS Insider Jon Rothstein shared on X/Twitter on Monday that the league intends to expand its schedule from 18 to 20 league games.

However, there has been no official announcement from the conference yet. It's perhaps too early to determine whether the SEC will stick to 18 league games or move to 20 games per year from 2025-26.

The 2023-24 season included 14 teams in the Southeastern Conference, including top schools like Kentucky, South Carolina, LSU, Tennessee and Alabama. Next season, the conference will expand to 16 teams with the addition of the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns.

"The Big 12 has always been a physical league. Going into the SEC and playing Tennessee the last two years, Rick Barnes’ teams are always going to be physical, but there are going to be several programs that are going to be physical and have that same mindset," Texas Longhorns head coach Rodney Terry said on joining the SEC.

The conference will surely see big changes by adding the Sooners and Longhorns. Back in 2012, when Missouri and Texas A&M joined, they used two years of temporary schedules to figure out a more permanent plan.

The SEC is currently the only major conference where teams do not play 20 league games – unlike the Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, Big East and Pac-12 – all of which have 20-game schedules.

SEC league games format for next season

SEC games start on Jan. 4 and end on March 8. Each team in the conference will play against all 15 other teams at least once. They will also play three teams a second time – two of these teams are fixed opponents every year – while a third team changes each year.

Last season, the conference had a total of 126 games. All 16 teams played against each other once during the regular season. They again played their permanent opponents and the remaining two games against random teams. Alabama reached the Final Four of the 2024 NCAA tournament but was eliminated by Dan Hurley's UConn.