LSU HC Brian Kelly on SEC scheduling: 'We want to play Big Ten schools'

Nothing less than the future of college sports is being hashed out this week in conference rooms spread throughout a sprawling seaside resort in Florida.

These are the Southeastern Conference's annual spring meetings — a gathering of school presidents, athletic directors and coaches. It might be argued that the 2025 affair carries more weight than it ever has.

Among the topics are the future of the College Football Playoff, the SEC's own schedule, the transfer portal and the NCAA itself. All are influenced by the fate of a multibillion-dollar lawsuit settlement that hovers over almost every corner of college athletics.

As a reminder of what's at stake, a handful of football coaches detailed the uncertainties they faced with the start of practice closing in, one of which is still not knowing how many players they'll be able to suit up for the upcoming season.

"It's challenging when you're trying to figure out what you can do for football camp on July 30th, when we really don't have much of a resolution of what that's going to look like," Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said.

One person who knows precisely what he wants to see on his team's schedule is LSU head coach Brian Kelly, who told Yahoo Sports that the Tigers "want to play Big Ten schools." LSU went 1-1 against Big Ten competition last season, losing to USC in Week 1 and beating UCLA in Week 4. LSU is a combined 3-1 against the Big Ten under Kelly (2022-present).

Some of the topics being discussed this week and the SEC's role in sorting them out:

The SEC and Big Ten will decide whether to expand the CFP from 12 to 14 or 16 teams, and will ultimately have the final say on how many automatic bids they and other conferences will receive. Among the proposals is one in which