At some point, we will have one governing body when it comes to major college football. The ACC has 17 teams and plays eight conference games, with Notre Dame being loosely affiliated with the league. The Big Ten has 18 teams and plays nine conference games. And while the Big 12 and SEC both have 16 teams, the Big 12 plays nine conference games, while the SEC plays eight. We all need uniformity.
So in the wake of Nebraska shamelessly backing out of the Cornhuskers' home-and-home with the Tennessee Volunteers, we can see that Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule feels one way about this, when compared to an SEC athletic director like Chris Del Conte over at Texas. One is a head coach in a league that plays nine conference games, the other is an athletic director in one that plays eight.
What I am getting at is both men have their cases about what is going on with their respective teams in their respective leagues. I may root for a team that plays in Del Conte's new league, but I have long been in favor of nine conference games over in the SEC. Everyone should play nine. I am also a fan of every team playing at least two Power Four teams in the non-conference. You get one cupcake a year.
Let's break down what Del Conte and Rhule said to get to the bottom of this, starting with Del Conte.
Chris Del Conte looks at Texas playing big games as a strength for team
Del Conte started by saying in a Wednesday town hall meeting that this is big for Texas' big brand.
“Our brand – and I firmly believe this – our brand should play the greatest brands in college football because we’re the best. We’re going to play Ohio State, we’re going to play Michigan, we just signed a home-and-home with Notre Dame. Those games matter. With a 12-game playoff, those games matter. They matter to me. They should matter to you. You want to play the very best."
He followed this up by saying everyone at Texas is in favor of scheduling like they are doing already.
“I’m not issuing a cupcake schedule. Our coaches and our student-athletes aren’t. They want to play the very best. But we owe it to college football, we owe it to this organization, to play the very best. That’s what we’re going to continue to do. We just announced Notre Dame a couple weeks ago, and keep your eyes peeled. We’ll have another one. I just don’t want to get too far out.”
His biggest reason for the SEC getting to nine games is that Texas plays Oklahoma in a neutral site.
“I prefer nine games. Why? Because we play Oklahoma at a neutral site. So one year, we get four games. One year, we get three. If we had a nine-game schedule, four and four, we’d play our rival at a neutral site."
Since joining the SEC, he feels like anytime this is discussed, it is like ripping open a can of worms.
“It’s like Bengay or an atomic bomb. I’m applying constant heat on this particular subject with our friends in the SEC, that we need a ninth game. We’ll see if that happens, but we’re working towards that.”
Del Conte's point seems to be in favor of playing more big games because it is good for football.
Now let's turn our attention to what Rhule had to say about Nebraska not playing anyone of note.
Matt Rhule argues CFP will not reward you for non-conference games
Rhule defended his stance on the Tennessee cancelation to Urban Meyer while on Triple Option.
“Why would you ever play one of those games? If we’re being completely honest, Coach Meyer, I’m at a point in life where in my fourth job and after getting fired in the NFL, I kind of say what I feel nowadays, I could care less."
Rhule then made it a point to say that nine conference games should always be the way to go.
“Why in the world would a Big Ten team who’s already playing nine conference games, why would you ever play one of those games?”
His big argument is SEC teams may only have to play on the road in three true road games a season.
“You look at a lot of teams, and this is not anti-SEC, but there’s some SEC teams last year that only played three away games in another team’s stadium. Three. We’re in a league where some years you have five Big Ten home games, some years you have five road. You have to go on the road five times in the Big Ten with no like Florida-Georgia in a neutral site.”
He then finished by saying the College Football Playoff does not care about early-season wins at all.
“They proved to us this year when they did the seeding and all this stuff that early-season wins didn’t mean a thing. That really was, at the end of the day, what you looked like in the last month of the season. That’s what it all proved to us. And when I say what it looks like, it’s really how good your offense is. If you’re scoring points and blowing people out late in the year, you’re going to make the playoffs.”
Both Del Conte and Rhule seem very entrenched in their beliefs, but which man is more right here?
Chris Del Conte vs. Matt Rhule: Who is more right about non-conference?
As stated above, I firmly believe we need uniformity across the Power Four of college football. Nine conference games matter from a television and revenue standpoint. We also should reward teams who have the stones to schedule someone of relatively equal caliber in a given year in the non-conference. More big games means better football, which is what everyone wants to see happen.
At the end of the day, I am in favor of people being braver. The SEC can be braver by adding a ninth conference game to its schedule. Nebraska was not built on being cowardly like Rhule is canceling games against Tennessee. Tom Osborne and Bob Devaney would have played that game in a heartbeat, so that is all you really need to know about Rhule. Watch him leave for Auburn in 2026...
What I think is getting lost in translation in this argument is this. The Big Ten, Big 12 and the old Pac-12 scheduled nine conference games because they had to. The ACC and the SEC did not for a myriad of factors. Without question, the two biggest were the SEC was at the top of the college football world at the time of the playoff's introduction, and the other being its four non-conference rivalries.
As a Georgia alum, I have always found it interesting that the Dawgs, Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina are seemingly required to schedule Georgia Tech, Florida State, Louisville and Clemson out of the ACC annually, when teams like Missouri would not schedule Kansas and Texas A&M schedule Texas. Alabama and Auburn never had an non-conference rivalry worthy of investing heavily into.
During the first 10 years of the playoff, it was imperative to have a conference championship game, suffer no more than one loss on the season, but also schedule someone of note in the non-conference. Under the old system, Texas would be rewarded and Nebraska would be punished. In the new one, Rhule might have point, but his way of getting there is the epitome of circling a roundabout.
People will look at the Big Ten winning back-to-back playoffs and sending more teams to the 12-team tournament last year over the SEC as a sign of strength, and they might be right. However, the depth of the Big Ten cannot come close to what the SEC can offer. A team in the SEC cannot skate by during the regular season like Penn State sort of did and Indiana totally did. They have a soft middle.
To tie a bow on this, I am going to side with Del Conte on the premise of he is trying to make things happen, where as Rhule comes across like a stubborn brat who will not eat his peas and carrots at the dinner table. Non-conference games should and do matter. More importantly, what does Rhule know about making the playoff? He has never been. Del Conte has seen Texas make it two years in a row.
This is not an easy problem to solve, but we can solve it with Del Conte's attitude and not with Rhule's.