Here’s what the SEC’s 3 protected rivalry games should look like for every team

In 2026, the SEC will officially move to a 9-game schedule. 

That monumental news means each team in the SEC will have 3 protected rivals moving forward that it plays on an annual basis. 

Assigning those rivals to all 16 teams is something that will surely be a full-time job for more than a few folks in the league office over the next couple of months. 

The projection below will take into account factors such as historical rivalries and geographic considerations, but there’s one factor that I’ll weigh more heavily than any other. At the end of the day, this is a television product. These decisions have largely been made with money at front of mind. Such is life when you’ve signed a multi-billion dollar media rights deal. There are games on this schedule that ESPN is simply not going to be willing to give up in my opinion. 

That’s going to lead to some “unbalanced” protected rivalry rotations. Apologies in advance programs like Alabama, Auburn, Florida and LSU — you’ll have to settle for only playing SEC doormats twice every 4 years instead of on an annual basis. It’s not fair, but I don’t have much sympathy — that’s what the money is for. 

Predicting 3 protected rivals for every SEC team

With all of that in mind, here’s what the SEC’s protected rivals could look like for 2026 and beyond:

Alabama

• Auburn
• LSU
• Tennessee

I’ll be the first to acknowledge, this is an extremely tough slate of games. At least it will be once Auburn is competent again, which could be as soon as this fall. There’s a strong case to be made that Alabama should have Mississippi State as a protected rival. Tuscaloosa and Starkville are only about 90 miles apart and that would give Alabama perhaps a more “balanced” grouping of protected opponents.

But as I said in the intro, this is a TV product and Alabama is perhaps ESPN’s biggest attraction. The Iron Bowl is a lock. Alabama is Tennessee’s biggest rival, so that game stays, too. Do we really think ESPN would sign off on a reality where it only gets Alabama-LSU twice every 4 years? I don’t. That’s arguably been the SEC’s signature matchup over the last decade and a half. It says. 

Arkansas

• Texas
• Texas A&M
• Missouri

Arkansas and Texas have history that dates back decades, so this is a no-brainer. The Razorbacks also already have established rivalries with Texas A&M and Mizzou. There’s also some history with LSU, and that was considered, but this is what I landed on after looking at all the options. 

One other shoutout — Oklahoma and Arkansas have shockingly only played 15 times in their history, but they’d be a great regional pairing if the SEC wanted to go in that direction. Tulsa, Oklahoma’s second-largest metro, is a 2-hour drive from Fayetteville and there are a lot of Razorback fans who have found their way to Northeast Oklahoma. 

Auburn

• Alabama
• Georgia
• Ole Miss

Condolences to Auburn, who is probably the biggest overall loser from this exercise given both the 1) current status of the program and 2) the quality of protected rivals I have assigned it. But the reality is that both the Iron Bowl and the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry are going to be included in any of these proposals with no room for negotiation. 

The Ole Miss game is a bit trickier but that’s where the cards landed. I strongly considered bringing back the Auburn-Florida rivalry, which was ruined by the SEC’s divisional structure a couple of decades ago. In the end, I think the league decides to keep Auburn and Ole Miss as annual opponents. 

Florida

• Georgia
• Tennessee
• LSU

The Florida-Georgia game is a non-negotiable, so not much more to say on that front. I thought about a Florida-Auburn rivalry renewal, but I like this setup just a little bit more. I don’t want to lose either the Florida vs. LSU or the Florida vs. Tennessee rivalries. Both of those matchups should prove to be elite television productions, too. 

Georgia

• Auburn
• Florida
• South Carolina

Georgia has rivalries against Auburn and Florida that are more-or-less written in stone. I’m going with South Carolina for the final protected game. It’s more of a regional pick than anything else, but the Bulldogs and Gamecocks do have a long history of playing each other. I could see ESPN pushing for an annual game between Georgia and either Alabama or Texas, but I think those programs just have too many other natural rivalries that are more important. Still, I wouldn’t be shocked to see something like Georgia-Texas on the annual docket (probably at the expense of Arkansas vs. Texas). 

Kentucky

• South Carolina
• Vanderbilt
• Mississippi State

Congratulations to Kentucky, arguably the biggest winner from this exercise. There are zero blue bloods on this schedule. UK does lose its traditional rivalry with Tennessee, which is somewhat of a bummer. But in prioritizing the television product with the SEC’s top brands, that means some teams are going to have a lackluster set of protected rivals. 

LSU

• Alabama
• Florida
• Oklahoma

As stated above, I don’t think ESPN is going to be willing to sacrifice Alabama vs. LSU from its annual inventory. Likewise, LSU-Florida is a massive game that should be kept on the calendar. 

The controversial pick here is going with LSU-Oklahoma over LSU-Ole Miss or LSU-Arkansas. This is something I wrestled with, but I think the SEC has tipped its hand over the past couple of years with what it wants to do. Not only have OU and LSU played each other the last 2 seasons, but they put that game on Rivalry Weekend in both 2024 and 2025. To me, that says something about how the league office views this matchup moving forward.

Mississippi State

• Vanderbilt
• Ole Miss
• Kentucky

Like Kentucky, Mississippi State gets a friendly draw here. The Bulldogs keep the Egg Bowl, of course, but they no longer play Alabama or LSU every year. There are certainly some pros and cons to that. A major pro — this setup makes it much easier for Mississippi State to make a bowl game. Go 3-0 in nonconference and be better than Kentucky and Vanderbilt and, all of a sudden, all you need to do to make the postseason is pull off 1 upset. 

Mizzou

• Arkansas
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina

Arkansas and Oklahoma are both fairly straight-forward for Mizzou. The Tigers and Razorbacks have been regional rivals since Missouri joined the SEC. Conversely, the Oklahoma game will be a call back to when Bob Stoops used to beat the hell out of Missouri every couple of years. South Carolina and Missouri also have a formal rivalry that seems to be based on the fact that both schools are located in a town called Columbia. 

Oklahoma

• LSU
• Mizzou
• Texas

Oklahoma-Texas is a lock, of course. I think a lot of OU fans would like to see a regular series with Arkansas, but a Big 12 reunion with Mizzou makes a lot of sense, too. It says something to me that the SEC partnered Oklahoma with Mizzou and Texas with Arkansas for the 2024 and 2025 schedules. I’d guess that’s the direction the league wants to go in for 2026 and beyond.

As for the final game, LSU makes sense mostly through the lens of ESPN calling the shots. An annual game between Oklahoma and LSU would always be highly rated and some years it could have real national title implications (if the Sooners can get their act together). The fact that OU-LSU has been placed on Thanksgiving weekend the past couple of years carries a lot of weight in this prediction. 

Ole Miss

• Mississippi State
• Texas A&M
• Auburn

The Egg Bowl is staying, obviously. I’m not super happy with how this turned out for Ole Miss otherwise, to be honest. Games against Texas A&M and Auburn will be fun and potentially impactful matchups on the calendar. But I would have loved to preserve the Ole Miss vs. LSU rivalry in this exercise — I just couldn’t quite make it work. 

South Carolina

• Georgia
• Mizzou
• Kentucky

With this arrangement, South Carolina would have to face Georgia and Clemson on an annual basis. That’s about as tough as a 1-2 combo gets in today’s college football. A matchup against Mizzou for The Mayor’s Cup won’t be easy, either. 

Tennessee

• Alabama
• Vanderbilt
• Florida

To be transparent — there were permutations of this schedule projection that didn’t have Tennessee vs. Alabama, but it just didn’t feel right. Some of the most indelible images in all of college football over the past 5 years have come from this series. ESPN should be wanting to put primetime games in Neyland Stadium as often as possible, and having annual matchups vs. Alabama and Florida is certainly progress toward that ideal. Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt also stays on the schedule, of course.

Texas 

• Arkansas
• Oklahoma
• Texas A&M

Texas has 2 stone-cold locks to be projected rivals: Oklahoma and Texas A&M. That left just 1 slot for me to play with and I ended up going with Arkansas. The Longhorns and Razorbacks have a rich history that dates back to their membership to the Southwest Conference. This was an annual meeting until 1991 and Arkansas has actually held its own since the turn of the century, winning 4 of 7 matchups vs. UT over that span.

Texas A&M

• Arkansas
• Texas
• Ole Miss

The Texas rivalry is set in stone. Arkansas and Ole Miss are both solid regional rivals, although it does feel like a missed opportunity to not have A&M playing against old Big 12 foes Oklahoma and Missouri more often. The Texas vs. Texas A&M game is likely to headline ESPN’s Thanksgiving weekend slate for the foreseeable future. 

Vanderbilt

• Tennessee
• Kentucky
• South Carolina

Vanderbilt keeps its in-state rivalry with Tennessee and then draws old SEC East foes Kentucky and South Carolina for its other 2 permanent schedule fixtures. It’s a pretty good draw for the Commodores — they’ll have a decent chance to win a couple of these games most years, which is what they’ll need to do to make a bowl game in an era where the SEC is playing 9 conference games a season.