MONTEVALLO — On Friday, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) weighed in on the Southeastern Conference's (SEC) announcement from the day before that it would be implementing a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2026.
The former Auburn football coach, who is now running for Alabama governor, acknowledged that the extra conference game would make life "harder" on coaches but said it was good for SEC fans, who wanted to see better games instead of games against cupcake opponents.
"It's going to be harder to make that [College Football Playoff] ... playing for the national championship," Tuberville emphasized in a press gaggle after leading a Senate veterans field hearing at American Village. "It's just harder. It makes it harder, but I always heard this from my fans when I was coaching: 'Coach, we want to see more games against Texas A&M or LSU, not as many as some of these schools that we've never heard of.' So, coaches are not going to be really happy about it, I'll tell you that, but again, the one group that you have to keep happy is your fans. With all of this NIL nonsense, we're losing fans, and I think this might enhance bringing back the interest in a lot of the games that are played."
"The SEC — they've been talking about it for a year, and I would imagine today if you went to every head coach in the SEC, and if they told the truth, they wouldn't say they are all that fired up about it. But, again, as a fan, I'm fired up about it," he concluded.
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