On3’s Chris Low did the Lord’s work by getting us the information we all wanted a day earlier than expected. Originally, the SEC‘s annual opponents for the new 9-game conference schedule was going to be released on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network and ESPN2.
But because of Low’s reporting, we know that these will be the 3 annual SEC opponents for each team when the 9-game schedule begins in 2026:
It’s also worth noting that those will only be for the next 4 years (2026-29), and then reevaluated. In other words, competitive imbalance will be tweaked at the end of the decade.
But because these things can’t be perfect, there’s still some competitive imbalance. There might not be the type of scheduling variance that there is right now with the 8-game schedule, though it’s also worth noting that we also don’t have a full schedule unveiled yet.
Just in terms of the annual SEC opponents draw, these were the 3 most favorable and the 3 most daunting:
3 most favorable
These teams should be feeling the best about their draws:
LSU
Annual opponents — Arkansas, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
Why it’s favorable — I don’t mean to disrespect Ole Miss or Texas A&M by putting LSU in this spot, but think about this. You’ve got 3 teams with 1 combined appearance in a conference title game in the 21st century, and it’s Arkansas. As in, the team who’ll likely be hiring a new coach for 2026. That’s an entirely different set of annual hurdles for LSU to overcome compared to what it endured during the days of the SEC West being the best division in college football. Those teams have just 3 combined top-10 finishes in the Playoff era. Compare that to someone like Auburn, whose 3 annual opponents have 18 combined top-10 finishes in the Playoff era (more on that in a minute). LSU not being anyone’s No. 1 rival might’ve worked in its favor more than it did for a program like Arkansas, who we’ll get to later.
Tennessee
Annual opponents — Alabama, Vanderbilt, Kentucky
Why it’s favorable — How about the fact that against their current head coaches, Josh Heupel is 9-0? Alabama being the most challenging annual opponent doesn’t carry the same weight as it did when the Vols were just trying to end a 15-year losing streak. Now, the Vols have won 2 out of the last 3 in that matchup, which no longer features Nick Saban and instead features someone who is 2-5 in games away from Tuscaloosa (that could be 2-6 by the end of this weekend at Georgia). That’s much more manageable than knowing Saban and Kirby Smart await on an annual basis. We still need to see what Vanderbilt looks like in a post-Diego Pavia world in order for that to feel like a daunting annual matchup, and as we saw last year, Pavia couldn’t stop the Playoff-bound Vols. This is a solid draw for a team that’s finally found a level of consistency that’s been lacking in the post-Phil Fulmer era.
Georgia
Annual opponents — Auburn, Florida, South Carolina
Why it’s favorable — It’s possible that 2 of Georgia’s annual opponents will have new coaches in 2026. I’m not saying that’s imminent for Auburn, but even if it’s not, the Tigers have 4 consecutive losing seasons, all of which included losses to Smart. In fact, Smart has 1 loss to those teams in the 2020s. It was also 5 years ago … to a coach who doesn’t have that job anymore (Dan Mullen). This is similar to the type of schedule that Georgia had during the SEC East days, wherein plenty complained that the path to Atlanta was too easy. The path to Atlanta will never be easy in the modern SEC, but Georgia getting annual opponents that aren’t Alabama, LSU or Texas feels like a massive win.
3 most daunting
These teams can’t catch a break:
Arkansas
Annual opponents — LSU, Mizzou, Texas
Why it’s daunting — Just in case Arkansas needed another kick to the teeth, these 3 annual foes are brutal. It’s especially brutal knowing that unlike LSU, who might’ve benefitted from not having a true rival, Arkansas instead got 3 teams who could be poised to compete for Playoff berths in the latter half of the decade, and they all have $9 million coaches who aren’t going anywhere. Yikes. Since the start of 2023, those 3 teams went a combined 76-18 with a 31-11 mark in SEC play. That would be daunting for anyone, much less an Arkansas team who currently owns the SEC’s longest drought without an appearance in the AP Top 25. A 3-9 mark for Arkansas against those teams in the 2020s makes a likely rebuild feel a touch more daunting in the likely event that Sam Pittman is gone at season’s end.
Texas A&M
Annual opponents — LSU, Mizzou, Texas
Why it’s daunting — Uh, see “Arkansas.” It’s literally the same exact teams. Just in case you need a reminder and don’t want to scroll up, those are 3 teams who are a combined 76-18 overall and 31-11 in SEC play. The Aggies faced all 3 of those teams in College Station last year and will travel to face all of them this year. The latter will be a better indication for how this could feel on an annual basis. Unlike Arkansas, who doesn’t appear to have its coach of the future, A&M at least has that and ideally won’t endure a transition season or 2 under Mike Elko. Recruiting at the level A&M does should prevent the valleys that we saw in the 2010s, or even when the offense was stagnant under Jimbo Fisher in the 2020s. With those 3 annual opponents, that recruiting/talent acquisition floor can’t afford to dip at all.
Auburn
Annual opponents — Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt
Yeah, there’s 1 SEC team with Alabama and Georgia on an annual basis. It’s Auburn. You can tell me that Saban isn’t at Alabama anymore, and I’ll still remind you that it’s still a program that’s recruiting at a top-5 level with a coach who has the best record vs. AP Top 25 teams (15-3) among active coaches with 15 such games. That matters. So, too, does facing a Georgia team who hasn’t lost a home game in the 2020s and is riding 8 consecutive top-7 finishes. We haven’t even gotten to the part where Pavia is going to find a way to stay in college forever and play/haunt Freeze on an annual basis at Vandy. That is, as long as Hugh Freeze is at Auburn. Time will tell how many of these annual matchups he gets to coach in. As it stands, Freeze is 1-5 against them at Auburn. If that trend continues, he won’t be on The Plains to see who Auburn’s next annual opponents are.
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.
