Home night games are extremely important in the SEC.

For starters, the electric atmosphere provides an incredible advantage for the home team. It’s always tough to win on the road, but it’s especially tough at night.

“I think that’s a really big [deal] in the SEC,” said LSU head coach Lane Kiffin this week of night games. “I’ve said that for years. When you play at home at night, you play better offensively.”

Night games are also important for recruiting. Many college football programs are putting in a lot of effort to make upgrades so their stadium has the latest sound system, light shows, etc to make the night game experience even better. And they want recruits to experience it.

Not every program, though, gets the same night game opportunities, and the numbers show it.

I took a look at the schedules for each SEC team from 2021 to 2025 (I didn’t include 2026 because we don’t have the times for all of the games yet this season), and I counted how many SEC home night games (6 PM ET or later) each team has played.

And the results show that some programs, for lack of a better word, are getting screwed.

Alabama: 9
Arkansas: 3 (the Razorbacks played Texas A&M in Dallas from 2021 to 2024)
Auburn: 9
Florida: 6 (Florida plays Georgia in Jacksonville each year)
Georgia: 6 (Georgia plays Florida in Jacksonville each year)
Kentucky: 14
LSU: 15
Mississippi State: 8 (zero SEC night games in the last two years)
Missouri: 5
Ole Miss: 9
Oklahoma: 2 (joined the conference in 2024)
South Carolina: 10
Tennessee: 7
Texas: 2 (joined the conference in 2024)
Texas A&M: 10 (played Arkansas in Dallas from 2021 to 2024)
Vanderbilt: 3 (zero SEC night games in the last three years)

LSU is getting nearly twice as many SEC night games as most schools. That’s ridiculous. And why is Kentucky getting so many night games? (Those are usually SEC Network games, but that doesn’t impact the potential environment.)

Look, I don’t think every big game has to be at night.

Take this weekend for example. The Tennessee Vols vs Texas Longhorns game would be quite a spectacle if it was at night. And it would be better for the Vols if it was at night. But I also think it’s pretty cool that one of the biggest games of the day will be played at noon. It kind of has an old school feel to it.

So what I’m suggesting is that with the ESPN/SEC contract — which has structured windows and a nine-game conference schedule that is seemingly locked in for the foreseeable future — there should be a fixed number of SEC night games for each team every two years (because the SEC opponents for each team changes every two years).

ESPN and the SEC need to make sure there’s an equitable distribution of conference night games — it’s simply too big of an advantage not to do that. I mean, I don’t care if Vanderbilt doesn’t have a huge stadium — they deserve the same opportunity as LSU.

It’s time to start doing what’s best for each program, not what’s best for TV ratings.