MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. – LSU coach Brian Kelly strongly endorsed a rumored scheduling alliance between the Big Ten and SEC on Wednesday.
And he isn’t alone.
“Our first goal would be wanting to play Big Ten teams as coaches,” Kelly said Wednesday. “I can speak for the room. We want to play Big Ten teams but you’ve got to get a partner. You’ve got to get a partner who says we’re in for that, too. So we’ve made our voice clear, our athletic directors know that as well that we would like that. Our commissioner obviously heard us well. The rest will be up to what gets negotiated.”
Kelly said the reasons for wanting to play the Big Ten annually in the regular season are quite simple.
“The Big Ten right now holds it on the SEC,” Kelly said. “They’ve won the last two national championships, that’s the reality of it. We want to get challenged in that regard and we’d like to be able to get that done. That’s up to the commissioner and the ADs, but that’s the wish of the room.”
The LSU coach said the SEC football coaches want nine conference games plus an annual Big Ten game. However, Arkansas coach Sam Pittman later said he would actually prefer eight conference games and maintain the status quo, but if he had to add a ninth game his preference was for it to be a Big Ten opponent.
“The fans would enjoy seeing the SEC and Big Ten playing in a play-in type game or playing a ninth game each year,” Pittman said. “I think that was another option Coach Kelly was talking about other than playing nine SEC games. I think the league wants us to go to nine so either we go to nine ourselves or maybe invite another conference to play us.”
Despite Kelly saying he spoke for the room, Pittman’s preference for eight SEC games plus a Big Ten scheduling agreement…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/brian-kelly-speaks-for-the-room-on-adding-annual-big-ten-foe-but-sec-coaches-far-from-unified-on-schedules/
Author : John Talty
Publish date : 2025-05-28 19:21:00
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