9 SEC games, starting in 2026

#76
#76
bamawriter said:
My suggestions (yes, some aren't perfect, but it's not gonna be):

Alabama - Auburn, Tennessee, Mississippi St
Arkansas - Missouri, Texas A&M, LSU
Auburn - Alabama, Georgia, Florida
Florida - Georgia, South Carolina, Auburn
Georgia - Florida, Auburn, South Carolina
Kentucky - South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Tennessee
LSU - Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Arkansas
Mississippi St - Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama
Missouri - Arkansas, Mississippi St, Texas
Oklahoma - LSU, Texas, Texas A&M
Ole Miss - Mississippi St, LSU, Vanderbilt
South Carolina - Kentucky, Florida, Georgia
Tennessee - Vanderbilt, Alabama, Kentucky
Texas - Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Missouri
Texas A&M - Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma
Vanderbilt - Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss
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Of course it’ll work out for Texas to the have the easiest “rival” opponents
 
#77
#77
So Tennessee could end up with 6 home games in 2026. We have 2 non conference home games scheduled and GA Tech in Atlanta. If we get 4 conference games in at home in 2026 (5 in 2027) we only get 6 home games.
 
#79
#79
OrangeVolMan said:
So Tennessee could end up with 6 home games in 2026. We have 2 non conference home games scheduled and GA Tech in Atlanta. If we get 4 conference games in at home in 2026 (5 in 2027) we only get 6 home games.
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But one of those away games will always be Vandy so, thats really a home game for us.
 
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#81
#81
volfan102455 said:
That is also an odd number - so does that imply that one year we have 4 conference home games and the next year we have 5 - so we rotate between 4 and 5 SEC home games each year?
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bamawriter said:
Yep. Unless you're a UGA-Florida / Texas-OU set up where you've got a neutral site every year.
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volfan102455 said:
So ... speaking of ticket prices ... the year when we have 5 SEC home conference games coupled with that high quality non-conference game at home - would definitely make tickets costs worth it ... just saying.
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I'm going to say that the ADs will be asked to schedule that OOC to be home and away opposite of the biased schedule. So when you only have 4 home SEC games your OOC is a home game too. When you play the 5 SEC at home your OOC is an away.

The other thought is take one paired traditional rivalry for each team and make it a neutral site like UGA-Aubby and OU - Texas.
We used to play Bama in Birmingham every year...problem is finding venues enough for that to work because Legion Field isn't good anymore.
 
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#83
#83
bamawriter said:
My suggestions (yes, some aren't perfect, but it's not gonna be):

Alabama - Auburn, Tennessee, Mississippi St
Arkansas - Missouri, Texas A&M, LSU
Auburn - Alabama, Georgia, Florida
Florida - Georgia, South Carolina, Auburn
Georgia - Florida, Auburn, South Carolina
Kentucky - South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Tennessee
LSU - Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Arkansas
Mississippi St - Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama
Missouri - Arkansas, Mississippi St, Texas
Oklahoma - LSU, Texas, Texas A&M
Ole Miss - Mississippi St, LSU, Vanderbilt
South Carolina - Kentucky, Florida, Georgia
Tennessee - Vanderbilt, Alabama, Kentucky
Texas - Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Missouri
Texas A&M - Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma
Vanderbilt - Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss
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Pretty good from a geographic point view, and looks like most traditional rivalries will be kept. I don't think they'll give us both Vandy and Kentucky....just due to strength of schedule. Bet they swap Kentucky with South Carolina.....then there's the domino effect....what a headache! They're not going to keep everyone happy.
 
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#86
#86
Delmar said:
True, I did miss that little item. Sorry. But I would still submit that there are different levels of “quality” in those 3 conferences that can be scheduled. Unfortunately not everybody can get Houston, Wake Forest, Rutgers or Purdue at the same time so I guess there has to be a decent nonconference game in there somewhere.
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Let's schedule Indiana....they're "quality"
 
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#87
#87
My two cents...
We get Bama, UK, and Vandy as permanent.
Then in the rotation we will see UGA and Florida in opposite years as well as OU and Texas. So EVERY year we will see Bama, UGA/FLA, and OU/TX...that's brutal.

The other thing i don't care for is that rotation will be home and away. So when we play UGA every two years, it will only be every FOUR years in Neyland.
 
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#91
#91
vavolfan6 said:
This will shut up the BIG 10 crowd, but we already had a higher Strength of Schedule than everybody else including that conference.

This will result in the league beating up on each even more. But it was unavoidable. The league is looking to stay ahead financially than everybody else, so that means exchanging an FCS opponent with an SEC game.

I just hope the Big 10 who has easy schedules already, with a 9 game schedule, don't get the benefit over the SEC in CFP rankings when they have more teams with 10 wins. They only play 52% (9 games of 17 teams) of the remaining teams in their weaker conference while we will have to play 60% (9 games of 15 teams) in ours.
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They'll likely be exchanging a Group of 5 / Mid-major opponent with an SEC game. I didn't see anything today saying the SEC was banning scheduling games against FCS teams...so they'll all likely still do such.
 
#92
#92
Brave Volunteer said:
I could see Alabama, Florida, and Vandy. I cant see us drawing both Vandy and KY as perms. We'd have 2 of the 3 worst teams in the SEC as permanent opponents. Other teams wont like that.
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Agree. UK is def in realm of top 3 rivalries. UF possible but also have long history with ole Miss and Auburn…going back a bit. SC also possible with proximity and recent good semi-rivalry.

Sorting out western teams will be difficult b/c of meshing of UTx, OK, Ark, Miz TaM, with traditional sec rivalries. Guess old conf rivals will be rivals again.
 
#93
#93
All for it. There will now be at least 5 quality home games vs current 4 and less crap games we all attend but seem sort of like a waste of time and money and opportunity for needless injuries.
 
#94
#94
IndianaVol said:
My two cents...
We get Bama, UK, and Vandy as permanent.
Then in the rotation we will see UGA and Florida in opposite years as well as OU and Texas. So EVERY year we will see Bama, UGA/FLA, and OU/TX...that's brutal.

The other thing i don't care for is that rotation will be home and away. So when we play UGA every two years, it will only be every FOUR years in Neyland.
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Two things here

1) They finally got more $ to do so... good

2) My one 9 concern has always been... one year you'll have 4 at home; 5 on the road, schedule in a year where another title contender will have 5 at home/4 on the road. Nothing good about that draw.
 
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#96
#96
give_him 6 said:
Didn’t all the coaches say they didn’t want a 9th game? Thought Big 10 commish was pushing this on us and we resisted so he wouldn’t sign off on new CFP format. Just seems like we kneeled to Big 10 demands. Maybe I’ve got that wrong and probably do. It’s been a long week at work.
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The coaches never want an extra conference game, though, even when the number was back at 7 games. Watch the interviews from the SEC media days in 1991: every coach (including Majors) were verbal in their complaints on the matter of an additional 8th conference game AND a conference championship game; they all said that it would deeply hurt the conference and cause multiple teams to miss playing for national championships.

I mean, it makes sense. A coach's job security is defined entirely by their win-loss records on a season...a freebie American/SunBelt/MWC/MAC game can be the difference in job security...there's a big difference between a 7-5/8-4 finish versus a 9-3 finish when it comes to keeping a coaching job in a competitive league
 
#98
#98
Just saw this in an article about the 9 game schedule:

"At SEC media days in July, Sankey said the three annual opponents in a nine-game schedule would not be permanent. The schedules would operate on a four-year cycle, allowing for “look-ins” to revisit the three annual rivalries."
 
#99
#99
Delmar said:
Rest assured there will be 3 Little Sisters of the Poor along with 9 conference games on most SEC schedules from 2026 on out. Unless of course the “super league” comes to fruition and then who knows how that shakes out.
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Yeah, this makes compelling OOC games much less likely.
 
#100
#100
dobre_shunka said:
Just saw this in an article about the 9 game schedule:

"At SEC media days in July, Sankey said the three annual opponents in a nine-game schedule would not be permanent. The schedules would operate on a four-year cycle, allowing for “look-ins” to revisit the three annual rivalries."
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Don't understand why that should matter unless the thought is to make sure certain teams get easier schedules.
 
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