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There’s a chance that a Big Ten-SEC challenge is forthcoming in the latter half of the decade. That’s a positive. Our sport needs more elite on-campus matchups in nonconference play, which we’re slated to get in the 2020s.
What’s not positive is that we won’t see that happen this year.
The 2025 schedules are locked in, and sadly, we only have 3 matchups involving Big Ten and SEC teams (Wisconsin at Alabama, Michigan at Oklahoma and Texas at Ohio State). While those are all quality matchups, they’ll hardly be deciders for conference supremacy. If we had a Big Ten-SEC challenge, we’d get just that.
As we know from the basketball agreements like the ACC-SEC challenge, not all of these matchups are headliners. We also know that with the Big Ten and SEC currently having a different number of teams, you couldn’t have a perfectly equal slate. As a result, I decided to only include the 8 juiciest Big Ten-SEC matchups that I wish we could see in 2025:
Nebraska vs. Tennessee
I mean, this is obvious. A regular-season matchup 2 decades in the making would finally happen after Nebraska cited “stadium renovations” as to why it canceled its 2026-27 home-and-home with the Vols. Matt Rhule being forced to go to Tennessee immediately after he dogged the idea of challenging nonconference scheduling would have Rocky Top at a fever pitch. Plus, wouldn’t it be fun to see 2 of the most decorated young quarterbacks battle it out? Dare I say, it’s been too long since we watched these teams battle it out in the 2016 Music City Bowl.
South Carolina vs. Illinois
Do I even need to explain this one? It’s Shane Beamer vs. Bret Bielema, the rematch. While I wouldn’t anticipate a confrontation as hostile as we saw in the Citrus Bowl, I also wouldn’t rule it out. I’d still like to see if Bielema tried to get under Beamer’s skin again. These teams played in one of the most entertaining games of bowl season, and with a wealth of offensive production back for both teams, this would be billed as a matchup of top-15 teams. But above all else, it would be billed as college football’s version of Rocky II. Sign me up for that sequel.
Florida vs. Penn State
This is purely about wanting to see DJ Lagway in a White Out game. One of the nation’s top signal-callers would face an elite Penn State defense in the most hostile atmosphere of his young career (that’s excluding Tennessee because he didn’t start that game). We’ve already seen Florida play Big Ten teams like Michigan and Iowa during the Playoff era, but those were neutral-site games. An extremely rare trip north would be must-see TV, especially considering the fact that these 2 teams have somehow only played one another just 3 times. The last time these teams met was in the Outback Bowl at the end of 2010, AKA Urban Meyer’s last game at Florida.
Michigan vs. LSU
We shall call it “The Bryce Underwood Bowl.” Sending the former 5-star quarterback to Death Valley after he spurned LSU for Michigan at the 11th hour would make for tremendous theater. There’s a 100% chance that it would be a night game, and there’s a 100% chance that Blake Baker would blitz the LSU defense like his life depended on it. How would Underwood handle that? Of course, there’s the chance in this hypothetical matchup that Sherrone Moore would take the path of least resistance and start Mikey Keene instead of the true freshman. If that were the case, we’d have to settle for this matchup being “The Les Miles-Kirk Herbstreit Bowl.”
(If you know, you know.)
Texas vs. Ohio State
Wait, aren’t we already getting this matchup in 2025? You bet. Cheers to that. I wouldn’t change it. Last year’s Cotton Bowl thriller will have a rematch, and this time, the national title contenders will square off in Columbus. The Julian Sayin-Arch Manning quarterback showdown could be the best of the season. This is also going to be a revenge game of sorts for all-everything receiver Jeremiah Smith, who was held to 1 catch for 3 yards against Texas’ loaded defense, which is still loaded with proven talent. The Ohio State offense vs. the Texas defense could be as good of a strength-on-strength matchup as we’ll have in the regular season. The fact that we don’t have to fantasize about that opening-weekend matchup is a massive victory for the 2025 season.
Oregon vs. Georgia
We’ve reached the “coaches with history” portion of these matchups. It’s not necessarily fair to dismiss the intrigue for a 2025 Kirby Smart-Dan Lanning rematch just because the 2022 season opener was so lopsided. That was Lanning’s first game at Oregon, and his team played a de facto true road game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Also, Georgia was in the midst of consecutive national titles in what would be a 29-1 stretch over those 2 seasons. Even if this game were to be played in Athens, where UGA hasn’t lost in the 2020s, it would be a more fair fight. Oregon now stacks up better in the trenches and with UGA facing more personnel questions than any season since 2020, the timing could yield a master vs. disciple thriller.
Alabama vs. Washington
If you’re a Washington fan, how much animosity do you have for Kalen DeBoer after he left a national runner-up squad for Alabama? Maybe there’s some, but this wouldn’t quite be the level of another coach that we’ll get to in a minute. At the same time, DeBoer would face a major must-win game for his public perception. We all know that Washington had basically a new roster in 2024 after DeBoer left, which was a different story than Alabama. DeBoer would be trying to avoid a loss that would be arguably more humiliating than losing to Vanderbilt after becoming the No. 1 team in America. Something tells me a few people would tune in for that.
USC vs. Oklahoma
Can I call this “The Granddaddy of Them All” even if this isn’t the Rose Bowl? I don’t care. I’m doing it. If you thought Josh Heupel’s return to Oklahoma last year was electric, just imagine the reception that Lincoln Riley would get in this hypothetical world wherein he couldn’t wiggle out of this matchup. It would be unlike anything we’ve seen in the modern era of college football. For real. I’m not saying the quality of the teams would match the stakes, but Riley’s welcome would be beyond Lane Kiffin’s return to Knoxville in 2021 and probably more like Jimmy Johnson’s reception at Notre Dame for the legendary “Catholics vs. Convicts” game in 1988. OU fans might not ever get over Riley leaving for USC after the 2021 regular season. They’d get a chance to let him know about it in-person.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
