The SEC waited a long time to finally have a nine-game schedule. It didn’t wait long to put its most anticipated game on that schedule.
And as expected, the conference effectively got rid of its late-season weekend of games against smaller schools.
The SEC on Thursday night revealed its schedule for 2026, the first with a nine-game conference schedule. The opponents and home sites for games for the 2026-29 cycle were announced in September. Thursday night was the announcement of dates for those games, and seeing how the SEC spread them out.
Here were the five main takeaways:
1. The Lane Kiffin Bowl happens about as soon as it could: Kiffin will bring his new LSU team to his former Ole Miss team in the third week of the season, on Sept. 19. That was the earliest it could have been because of non-conference games the teams had scheduled the first two weeks.
2. The SEC has used the extra conference game to beef up its November schedules. For almost two decades, most SEC teams have played a late-season game against a non-power conference team, a respite before rivalry games or the postseason. But next season there will be just four of those games in November, all on Nov. 21, a day that will have six conference games. The previous two November weekends are all conference games.
3. The SEC has dominated the television ratings the past two seasons, especially this year: 31 of the 40 highest-rated games of the regular season involved an SEC team, 24 of those being SEC vs. SEC games.
Now with eight more games, the SEC has a chance to give Disney even more television inventory.
The basic strategy is to spread games around so that each week has at least three marquee games, to fill the noon (ET), 3:30 p.m. (ET) and prime-time slots. That doesn’t always appear to be the case: Week 5, for instance, seems light on marquee games, with Vanderbilt at Georgia the headliner, because Vanderbilt’s starting quarterback will probably be Jared Curtis, the five-star who was committed to Georgia until the eve of signing day. But there were other considerations, namely not giving teams too much of an unreasonable stretch of tough games, and balancing home and away games. Not everything is done for television, believe it or not.
Jared Curtis (2) will likely be Vanderbilt’s starting quarterback in Week 5 against Georgia, the team he originally committed to. (Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
4. Which teams have the toughest stretches of games? It would be hard to pick any in this nine-game era. Especially with the depth of the conference, which placed five teams in this year’s CFP and had 10 teams finish with at least seven wins.
Kiffin’s LSU team, for instance, has a three-game stretch where it plays Alabama, Texas and Tennessee. Tennessee finishes by playing Texas A&M, LSU and in-state rival Vanderbilt. Alabama has a stretch where it plays Georgia, Tennessee and Texas A&M.
5. A few other individual game highlights:
- Georgia goes to Alabama for yet another showdown between the two teams on the same day as the Red River Rivalry.
- Georgia also goes to Ole Miss on Nov. 7 for what could be the third time they’ve played in the past two seasons, if Ole Miss beats Tulane in the CFP first round to set up a quarterfinal game in the Sugar Bowl.
- Two new SEC coaches make their conference debuts against each other: Jon Sumrall’s Florida Gators go to Alex Golesh’s Auburn Tigers in Week 3.
- Kiffin has a November to remember: He hosts Alabama and Texas in back-to-back weeks, then goes to Tennessee, his other former SEC school.
Here is the week-by-week schedule, with an estimate of the pecking order the games will have for television purposes:
WEEK 1: Sept. 5
Auburn vs. Baylor (Atlanta)
Clemson at LSU
Ole Miss vs. Louisville (Nashville)
Texas State at Texas
East Carolina at Alabama
UTEP at Oklahoma
Tennessee State at Georgia
North Alabama at Arkansas
Florida Atlantic at Florida
Youngstown State at Kentucky
Arkansas Pine-Bluff at Missouri
Kent State at South Carolina
Furman at Tennessee
Missouri State at Texas A&M
Austin Peay at Vanderbilt
Louisiana-Monroe at Mississippi State*
WEEK 2: Sept. 12
Alabama at Kentucky
Ohio State at Texas
Oklahoma at Michigan
Missouri at Kansas
Tennessee at Georgia Tech
Arizona State at Texas A&M
Arkansas at Utah
Mississippi State at Minnesota
Ole Miss at Charlotte
Southern Miss at Auburn
Western Kentucky at Georgia
Campbell at Florida
Towson at South Carolina
Delaware at Vanderbilt
WEEK 3: Sept. 19
LSU at Ole Miss
Florida at Auburn
Georgia at Arkansas
Kentucky at Texas A&M
Mississippi State at South Carolina
Florida State at Alabama
N.C. State at Vanderbilt
UTSA at Texas
New Mexico at Oklahoma
Kennesaw State at Tennessee
WEEK 4: Sept. 26
Oklahoma at Georgia
Texas A&M at LSU
Texas at Tennessee
Ole Miss at Florida
Vanderbilt at Auburn
South Carolina at Alabama
Missouri at Mississippi State
Tulsa at Arkansas
South Alabama at Kentucky
WEEK 5: Oct. 3
Vanderbilt at Georgia
Auburn at Tennessee
Florida at Missouri
Alabama at Mississippi State
Arkansas at Texas A&M
Kentucky at South Carolina
McNeese State at LSU
Byes: Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Texas
WEEK 6: Oct. 10
Georgia at Alabama
Texas vs. Oklahoma (Dallas)
Texas A&M at Missouri
Ole Miss at Vanderbilt
Tennessee at Arkansas
South Carolina at Florida
LSU at Kentucky
Byes: Auburn, Mississippi State
WEEK 7: Oct. 17
Auburn at Georgia
Alabama at Tennessee
Florida at Texas
Missouri at Ole Miss
Mississippi State at LSU
Kentucky at Oklahoma
Arkansas at Vanderbilt
The Citadel at Texas A&M
Bye: South Carolina
WEEK 8: Oct. 24
Texas A&M at Alabama
Ole Miss at Texas
LSU at Auburn
Oklahoma at Mississippi State
Tennessee at South Carolina
Vanderbilt at Kentucky
Byes: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri
WEEK 9: Oct. 31
Florida vs. Georgia (Atlanta)
Auburn at Ole Miss
Missouri at Arkansas
South Carolina at Oklahoma
Mississippi State at Texas
Byes: Alabama, Kentucky, LSU, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
WEEK 10: Nov. 7
Alabama at LSU
Georgia at Ole Miss
Texas at Missouri
Oklahoma at Florida
Texas A&M at South Carolina
Kentucky at Tennessee
Arkansas at Auburn
Vanderbilt at Mississippi State
WEEK 11: Nov. 14
Texas at LSU
Ole Miss at Oklahoma
Alabama at Vanderbilt
Missouri at Georgia
Tennessee at Texas A&M
Florida at Kentucky
Auburn at Mississippi State
South Carolina at Arkansas
WEEK 12: Nov. 21
LSU at Tennessee
Texas A&M at Oklahoma
Arkansas at Texas
Georgia at South Carolina
Kentucky at Missouri
Vanderbilt at Florida
Chattanooga at Alabama
Samford at Auburn
Wofford at Ole Miss
Tennessee Tech at Mississippi State*
WEEK 13: Nov. 28
Auburn at Alabama
Texas at Texas A&M
Mississippi State at Ole Miss
Tennessee at Vanderbilt
Georgia Tech at Georgia
Florida at Florida State
South Carolina at Clemson
Louisville at Kentucky
LSU at Arkansas
Oklahoma at Missouri