3 reasons why Texas is a winner of the new SEC scheduling format
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The SEC’s 9-game conference schedule was released Tuesday evening and basically set the stage for the conference for the next 4 seasons.
Each SEC team will have 3 annual rivalry opponents while facing every other SEC program once every 2 years. Every school still must schedule at least 1 nonconference opponent from the ACC, Big Ten or Big 12 conference or Notre Dame each season, as everything is part of a formula to give SEC schools the best chances to make the College Football Playoff.
With Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Arkansas as its built-in rivals, Texas is set up nicely in the SEC mix, which should bode well for the Longhorns over the next 4 seasons. Combined this with the fact Texas has some talented recruiting classes on the horizon coming to Austin and it’s easy to see why the Longhorns can be viewed as a realistic perennial threat to make the Playoff for the next few years.
Here are 3 reasons why Texas is a winner of the new SEC scheduling format:
1. Familiarity breeds comfortability
With Texas still being one of the new kids on the SEC block, it could have easily been given a rival combination with schools it doesn’t historically play often. That would make things more difficult than currently constructed. By being given the trio of Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Arkansas, Texas has 3 teams it has played 80 times or more in school history and the Longhorns keep their 2 biggest rivals consistently on their schedule.
With its game against Oklahoma always a neutral-site game in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl, Texas gets the underrated benefit of never having to play on the road at more than 1 rival school a year. Although the home-field advantages of Kyle Field and Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium aren’t what they were about a decade ago, you won’t find many SEC teams voluntarily signing up to play at both places in the same season.
2. Texas Can Keep Recruiting At A High Level
Since Steve Sarkisian arrived on “The Forty Acres” 4 years ago, Texas has produced a top-10 recruiting class every cycle. Sarkisian has been so dominant on the recruiting trail, Texas is in the mix to have the top overall recruiting class for the 2025 and 2026 cycles.
By having the SEC trio of rivals they got — specifically Oklahoma and A&M — Sarkisian and company will have another pitch to get recruits’ attention while on the recruiting trail.
It’s a very well-known fact in recruiting circles in the South, and specifically in Texas, that many kids come to Texas to be part of the Texas-OU and the Texas-Texas A&M rivalries. Thanks to the SEC’s decision makers, this remains the case and indirectly gives the Longhorns a small advantage when it comes to recruiting because Texas will get future talented players to stay in the Lone Star State and come to Austin just to play in these 2 big rivalry games each season.
3. Texas Dodges The SEC Big Boys
Before Texas entered the SEC, many people across the Lone Star State questioned out loud if the Longhorns could consistently compete with Alabama, Georgia and LSU on a yearly basis. Thanks to this new scheduling format, Texas will not have more than 2 of the 3 powerhouse programs who have won the last 11 SEC championships on its schedule in a calendar year.
In 2026 and 2028, the Longhorns play LSU, with only 1 trip to Death Valley in 2026 and play Alabama and Georgia in 2027 and 2029, but get 1 game in Austin each year and a trip to Tuscaloosa and Athens in 2027 and 2029, respectively. One of the best things about the SEC is you can’t hide from anyone, and have to see everyone, as the best plays the best no matter what the sport.
In the big picture, despite Texas being the new kid on the block, the Longhorns are more than ready to take on the SEC gauntlet of talented teams year after year thanks to their NIL resources, high-level recruiting and the school’s commitment to making Texas the national powerhouse. The scheduling just let Sark and company know which difficult path they must travel each season to get in the Playoff in efforts to end their current national championship drought.
Kendrick E. Johnson writes for various national outlets such as High School on SI, Yardbarker, ESPN Andscape and MMA Weekly. He is an independent print journalist, sports television reporter and multimedia journalist who has covered the NBA Finals, NFL, NCAA football, MLB, NHL, WWE and over 75 world championship boxing and UFC Fights nationally. Johnson has also covered every prep sport possible in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and all across the great state of Texas. He’s done numerous 1-on-1 interviews with some of the biggest names and personalities in sports from Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry and Shaq on the basketball side to Jon Jones, Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford on the combat sports side and John Cena, Jey and Jimmy Uso and Charlotte Flair in WWE.
