SEC's most common non-conference foes that have never shared same league

When it comes to non-conference rivalries, Florida’s long-standing strife with Florida State is unique.

The programs have never been in the same conference, and yet the grudge has endured to this day 61 games later, despite the fact that the Gators have only been squaring off with the Seminoles since 1958.

Auburn and Clemson, by comparison, just had their 50th meeting last season and have still managed to play five times in the last 10 seasons to continue pumping blood into a series that dates back to 1899.

However, Auburn — and other SEC teams for that matter — were together with Clemson during the early years of the Southern Conference, which was home to 10 charter members of the SEC.

That makes Florida-Florida State special in that it’s a non-conference rivalry in the true sense of the phrase, so I was curious to see each current SEC team’s most common non-conference opponent, one in which it’s never shared the same league.

This might make for some good trivia questions for anyone around you that bleeds the same colors.

TAKEAWAYS

Believe it or not, Alabama has faced Southern Miss more times than it has faced Florida or Kentucky.

When you think about the Golden Eagles, you naturally think of legendary gunslinger Brett Favre. Well, Favre faced Alabama during three of his four years at USM (1987, 1989-90). During his senior season in 1990, Favre led his team to a 27-24 comeback win at the No. 13 Tide.

Then-Alabama coach Gene Stallings said of Favre that day: “You can call it a miracle or a legend or whatever you want to. I just know that on that day, Brett Favre was larger than life.”

The 71 meetings between Arkansas and Tulsa are more than any other matchup on the list. The last came in 2012 during John L. Smith’s one-year stint in Fayetteville before Bret Bielema arrived.

The Razorbacks got one of their four wins on the year with a narrow, 19-15 win behind RB Dennis Johnson’s 152 yards from scrimmage and 2 TDs, including the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter.

Auburn faced Samford not too long ago, beating the Bulldogs 31-7 in 2014. However, 24 of the 28 meetings between the two schools came between 1903 and 1945 as World War II was coming to an end.

After 2017, Samford will have faced an SEC team in six of seven seasons dating back to 2011, also facing Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Georgia, its opponent for next season.

Florida State has won six of the last seven against Florida to close the gap with the Gators in the win column. The series is now at 34-25-2.

Directly before that, Florida had won six straight against its rival. That immediately changed when Jimbo Fisher took over in Tallahassee.

Georgia and Furman first played in 1893 but haven’t played since 1950. The Paladins got their two wins over the Bulldogs in 1926 (14-7) and 1939 (20-0).

Coincidentally, those were the only two contests out of the 23 in which Furman was able to score more than 8 points.

If you guessed Louisville was Kentucky‘s opponent, you were wrong. The Wildcats have faced the Hoosiers seven more times throughout history than the Cardinals.

UK is nearly even with Indiana, currently at a 17-18-1 disadvantage with their neighbors to the north. The last meeting was a 38-14 win for the Hoosiers in 2005, making Kentucky the only team with a losing record versus its respective opponent.

LSU hasn’t played Rice in over 20 years. The Tigers’ last meeting with the Owls was in 1995, the same season Rice left the Southwest Conference after 80 years.

There are two schools that show up twice on this list, and Memphis is one of them. Mississippi State‘s history with the Tigers is actually very recent with all 44 meetings taking place since 1951.

The last meeting came in 2011, when Mississippi State pounded Memphis 59-14 in the season opener behind Vick Ballard’s 166 rushing yards, going for a career-best 16.6 yards per carry while scoring 3 TDs. The Bulldogs are scheduled to face the Tigers in back-to-back seasons from 2021-22.

Missouri has faced Illinois six times since the turn of the century, all of them in St. Louis, and the Tigers have won every game.

Mizzou made life miserable during Ron Zook’s time in Champaign, going 4-0 against the former Florida coach in his six full seasons with the Illini.

Back to Memphis, which is also Ole Miss‘ most frequent non-conference opponent. The 62 meetings between the Rebels and Tigers is second-most among all 14 series.

And this one is still going strong as the two schools have played 11 times since 2000, including each of the last three seasons, and the Rebels will next travel to face the Tigers in the 2019 season opener.

South Carolina will see Wofford this coming November in their 24th all-time meeting. The Gamecocks’ in-state foe is coming off a 10-win season under Mike Ayers, who’s been the Terriers’ coach since 1988.

South Carolina lost four of the first seven meetings with Wofford before winning 16 straight.

Chattanooga is the other team to appear twice, and it’s against two in-state schools. Tennessee and Vanderbilt have gone a combined 56-3-2 against the poor Mocs.

The Vols faced them as early as 2014, winning that matchup 45-10. The Mocs’ only victory over the last 38 meetings with the Vols came in 1958.

Texas A&M‘s most familiar non-conference opponent can also be found in-state, and that’s Trinity University, which is competing in Division III out of San Antonio.

The Aggies haven’t played the Tigers since 1961, and that’s probably for the best. A&M has shut out Trinity in 18 of their 21 all-time matchups.