SEC's Greg Sankey says league will get rid of November 'cupcake weekend' in 2027

SEC teams will soon no longer have the opportunity to play a weaker non-conference opponent near the end of the football season.

Commissioner Greg Sankey said Tuesday that the SEC’s schools had voted to make the next-to-last weekend of the season one full of conference games starting in 2027. Many SEC teams have regularly played lower-tier FBS or even FCS opponents ahead of rivalry weekend at the end of the regular season.

“Our ADs voted that our schools will play a conference game in that next-to-last weekend beginning in 2027,” Sankey said at a news conference before having a tongue-in-cheek moment. “We have had a rotation that’s had four teams with non-conference games or even open dates in that next-to-last weekend. I think that’s the end of cupcake weekend in late November. We never got that one sponsored, though.”

The four teams that play home games against FCS opponents on Nov. 21 are Mississippi State against Tennessee Tech, Ole Miss against Wofford, Alabama vs. Chattanooga and Auburn against Samford.

A season ago, Samford played at Texas A&M, Eastern Illinois played at Alabama, Mercer was at Auburn and Charlotte visited Georgia.

The Tide and Tigers have regularly played non-conference teams ahead of the season-ending Iron Bowl. Over the past 10 full seasons, each team has played just two SEC games in the penultimate week of the season. The tactic backfired for Auburn in 2023, however. The Tigers scheduled New Mexico State — a team quarterbacked by Diego Pavia — ahead of the Iron Bowl and lost 31-10 at home.

The removal of non-conference games should allow the SEC and its TV partner ESPN to schedule more pivotal games at the end of the season. As the 12-team playoff could expand to 16 or even 24 games, just two more league games on the next-to-last weekend will be a much more viable TV property than four games that will likely be blowouts.