The SEC announced several weeks ago that the conference would be sticking to an 8-game conference schedule in 2024. With Oklahoma and Texas joining the league, the now 16-team conference will play a custom schedule that includes every team playing 8 games in-conference and requires every team to play at least one out-of-conference Power-5 team.
The decision comes down, primarily, to money. The SEC has the potential to add obscene amounts of revenue through a new television deal with ESPN, but the conference does not have any pressure to add a ninth game in 2024. ESPN’s parent company is Disney, and Disney is still recovering from the financial crunch that most of the country is still feeling in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.