On Tuesday, the Southeastern Conference will release its full conference schedules for the next four football seasons, a plan that includes three designated annual opponents for each of its 16 members. While the complete schedules are pending, the permanent rivalry pairings were revealed Monday, confirming the protection of many historic matchups.
The SEC successfully preserved traditions such as Georgia-Auburn and Alabama-Tennessee, along with regionally significant games like Tennessee-Kentucky and South Carolina-Georgia. However, some new pairings, including Missouri-Texas A&M and Oklahoma-Ole Miss, lack historical weight and may be reconsidered when the league reevaluates the format after four years.
Though the SEC has not detailed its metrics for competitive balance, a clear principle emerged: no team was assigned more than two permanent opponents from the top half of the league in wins during the College Football Playoff and BCS eras. This guideline appears to have ensured fairer schedules but came at the cost of several of the conference’s most celebrated annual contests.
Of the 21 all-SEC matchups ranked in The Athletic’s Top 100 Rivalries, 15 will continue to be played annually. Here are 10 notable rivalries that will now move to a rotational basis.
1. Alabama-LSU
The loss of this annual showdown is significant. A staple of the November schedule, the Alabama-LSU series has been played every year since 1964 and has frequently carried national championship implications. In 12 of their meetings, at least one team was ranked No. 1 or No. 2, and the programs have a combined nine national titles since 2003. The rivalry’s importance became its undoing; Alabama’s primary commitments to Auburn and Tennessee meant adding LSU would create a slate with three opponents from the SEC’s top tier in victories since 1998. Instead, Alabama was paired with its closest neighbor, Mississippi State, while LSU retained annual games against Ole Miss, Arkansas, and Texas A&M.
2. Tennessee-Florida
While its preservation was always unlikely due to both schools’ other commitments, the end of this annual series is a disappointment for many. The Tennessee-Florida rivalry was forged by realignment when both were placed in the SEC East in 1992. Between 1990 and 2002, with both programs consistently in the national top 10, the game became the conference’s premier matchup. Florida’s schedule prioritizes its historic game against Georgia, while Tennessee is locked in with Alabama, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky.
3. Alabama-Georgia
This modern clash of titans was never a candidate for annual protection. Both programs are committed to their games against Auburn, and the Alabama-Tennessee and Georgia-Florida series are foundational to the sport’s history. Still, the new model ensures these border-state powerhouses will meet twice every four years—an improvement over the regular season, where they have played just four times since 2008. In that same span, they have met four times for the SEC championship and twice for the national title.
4. Tennessee-Georgia
With extensive lists of rivals, both Tennessee and Georgia faced difficult scheduling choices. The series, which was played just eight times between 1937 and 1992, has delivered several monumental games in recent decades. The teams have met 20 times as ranked opponents, and their 2022 contest was the first-ever No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in Sanford Stadium history.
5. Florida-LSU
A permanent cross-division series during the divisional era, Florida-LSU consistently produced outstanding games and has been played annually since 1971. Their 25 ranked matchups are second only to Alabama-LSU among longtime SEC rivalries. The series is also known for its unpredictability, featuring a combined nine top-10 upsets.
6. LSU-Mississippi State
This series, played 117 times, is the only SEC rivalry with over 100 meetings to be discontinued as an annual game. It became a casualty of the expanded conference’s scheduling adjustments. While LSU has a full slate of rivals, including Texas A&M and Arkansas, Mississippi State will preserve the Egg Bowl against Ole Miss while adding annual games against Alabama and Vanderbilt.
7. Auburn-Florida
There was hope this classic rivalry might return annually, but competitive balance made it unfeasible. Auburn already faces Alabama and Georgia—the top two SEC teams in victories during the BCS/CFP era—and adding Florida would have created a significant scheduling disparity. Many Florida fans consider Auburn their second-biggest SEC rival after Georgia, and the teams played every year from 1945 to 2002.
8. Texas A&M-Arkansas
Set for its 82nd meeting this fall, this former Southwest Conference rivalry will become rotational in 2026. The series resumed in 2009, and for years it was a neutral-site spectacle in Arlington, Texas. However, with both programs securing annual games against Texas and LSU, and the SEC prioritizing the Missouri-Arkansas matchup, this rivalry could not be maintained.
9. Ole Miss-Arkansas
Had Arkansas not secured LSU as a permanent opponent, Ole Miss was a likely candidate. The programs have played for 45 consecutive years, with Arkansas holding a slim 18-17 edge in their last 35 meetings. The rivalry is famously marked by the saga of coach Houston Nutt, who resigned from Arkansas after upsetting No. 1 LSU in 2007, only to accept the Ole Miss head coaching job hours later.
10. Kentucky-Vanderbilt
Though often overlooked in discussions of great SEC rivalries, this game is deeply important to both programs. They have played 97 times, including every year since 1953. Separated by about 220 miles, the programs view each other as key regional opponents, and the outcome often has bowl eligibility implications. As part of the new scheduling model, both will continue to play Tennessee annually but will now face different opponents otherwise.
