There are certain perennial matters of discussion at the annual SEC spring meetings.

Cans get kicked down the road every late May/early June. Perhaps no topic regenerates annually more than the discussion around how many conference football games should be played.

Eight or nine?

It’s been eight since 2012 and the conversation around adding another’s evolved over the years. That discussion fueled differing strategies for scheduling marquee non-conference games in the constant need to position for playoff marketability.

At this point, adding another game seems linked to the CFP adopting multiple automatic qualifiers per league. Otherwise, the SEC doesn’t see the incentive to add losses to resume when there’s a committee making subjective selections.

Alabama AD Greg Byrne agrees with that.

He’s also been among the most aggressive when scheduling high-profile non-SEC games in the home-and-home format. The Crimson Tide play both at Florida State and host Wisconsin this fall.

And the school is under contract to play at least two power-league schools every year through 2034. It was a move made in the late 2010s to scrap the neutral-site season openers in favor of on-campus offerings to boost schedule strengths and add value to ever-increasing ticket prices.

That was done in anticipation of an expanded playoff model that was still theoretical. Now, a year after the first 12-team postseason, realities surrounding the scheduling strategies have changed. Schedule strength wasn’t rewarded as much as leaders like Byrne or SEC commissioner Greg Sankey would have liked when the selection committee chose three league schools for the 12-team field.

Now those home-and-homes are no-longer long-off concepts, Alabama’s facing the possiblity of nine-game SEC schedules along with meeting the likes of West Virginia (2026 and 27), Ohio State (2027 and 28) and Notre Dame (2029 and 30) for example.

Is there any regret for inking these deals back then?

“So at the time when we scheduled them, we scheduled them based off the information we had,” Byrne said Tuesday at SEC spring meetings. “Coach Saban and myself at the time had both encouraged more SEC games. When we didn’t think that was going to happen, we started scheduling those two power five non-conference games.”

Auburn took a different approach to scheduling non-SEC games.

It opens the 2025 season at Baylor in its only power-conference game scheduled for this fall. It has the return game from the Big 12 team in 2026 and only one other home-and-home scheduled beyond that — Miami on the road in 2029 and at home in 2030.

Of course, none of these matters are resolved without complication.

And some high-profile non-conference games are coming off the books. Nebraska in February cancelled a home-and-home series with Tennessee scheduled for 2026 and 2027.

Byrne said the link between adding the ninth league game to guaranteed playoff slots for the SEC doesn’t diminish these non-conference games. Even if the proposed four SEC automatic qualifiers are determined via league games, there are still at-large bids in a 16-team model baked into the formula. He hopes those big non-conference home-and-homes would factor into those at-large spots given Alabama’s aggressive scheduling.

“If you talk to any college football fan, I don’t think one of them has ever said ‘I hope I see Alabama play more Group of Five teams,” Byrne said. “It’s good for the game of college football across the country if you have more good matchups. Period.”

Nebraska replaced the Tennessee games with visits from MAC schools Bowling Green and Miami (Ohio).

Of course, none of the playoff models are out of the theoretical phase and there’s no concrete deadline for determining the format under the new contract beginning in 2026.

That will dictate the conference scheduling model — the one that has been perennially in limbo — but there is a ticking clock on all of it. Late November sounds like the latest these decisions could be made for a 2026 league schedule and playoff selection process.

Nothing from Destin this week suggests a final conference stance is coming on either.

So the can will be kicked. The drama will continue and the true impact of Alabama’s long-term scheduling plan remains unclear.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.