After years of discussions, the SEC decided to switch to nine conference games every season and on Tuesday, the official schedules were released. Each team's three annual opponents from the 2026 to 2029 seasons were also unveiled. In the new format, the conference's teams' annual opponents will be reevaluated every four years, while officially, every team in the conference will face the remaining 12 teams once every two years. During an appearance on Wednesday's segment of the "SEC Network," outspoken ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum issued a warning to the college football playoffs committee over its treatment of the Southeastern Conference following the conference's confirmation of tough slates for its teams starting next season. “This was supposed to be a night to celebrate where the Southeastern Conference is,” Finebaum said. “But I’m getting angry listening to this conversation, because we’re all dumbfounded by what we heard last year. We have laid a marker from the SEC at the feet of the CFP and they better deliver.“I’m not making threats, because I don’t have any more control over it than anybody else, but I know some people who do. And if they screw this up, they will be paying for it. I don’t know how or will but they should, because this is unequivocal what the SEC has laid down tonight.”SEC schedule strength to be rewarded by CFP The SEC is one of the premier conferences in the country and there was an uproar last season when the two-loss Alabama Crimson Tide were left out of the expanded college football playoffs by the committee. In a statement released in August, the CFP executive director, Rich Clark, revealed that the strength of schedule for teams will be one of the highest priorities of the committee on Selection Sunday, with tougher schedules being rewarded. "All of these modifications will help the selection committee as they rank the top 25 teams," Rich Clark said. "We feel these changes will help construct a postseason bracket that recognizes the best performances and teams on the field during the regular season, and I want to thank our veteran selection committee members and data analytics groups for helping implement these changes."The college football playoff committee will announce the first of its rankings on November 4 and will drop five more until the last one on Selection Sunday, when the Southeastern Conference will find out how many teams it can squeeze into the 12-team field.