New SEC 9-Game Schedule: Projected Rivalries for All 16 Teams

After years of debate and rancor, the SEC has decided to join the Big Ten and Big 12 in adding a ninth conference game, beginning in 2026, opening the door for members of the nation's eminent football conference to renew long-abandoned rivalries and create interesting matchups that fans (and TV network executives) clamor for.  

With that in mind, the team at RotoWire.com focused on a specific aspect of the SEC's expanded conference schedule: the carve-out that abolishes divisions while allowing each member to play three traditional rivals each year, with six other contests that rotate around the rest of the conference. This enabled us to create a projection of which SEC rivalries will be protected as part of the triparty portion of the expanded slate.  

Here's what we came up with when it comes to which three rivals each of the 16 SEC programs will play once the conference's nine-game slate becomes reality next fall:  

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Which Rivalries Would Be Renewed (Or Protected)?  

While longstanding intra-division SEC rivalries like the Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn or the Egg Bowl between Ole Miss and Mississippi State have rolled on without interruption as the conference expanded from 10 to 12 teams in 1991, on through the conference's 14-team expansion in 2012 and the current 16-team setup in 2024, others have fallen by the wayside.  

Take, for instance, the rivalry between Alabama and Georgia, which has only been played outside of the SEC Championship Game of the CFP twice since 2020, that being the 2020 showdown that Alabama won, 41-24, and last year's 41-34 victory by the Crimson Tide.  

In the SEC's new, 9-game world, teams that formerly found themselves in different divisions (like Alabama and Georgia, or Georgia and LSU) would have the chance to play each other yearly, creating another bit of 'must-see TV' for the nation's gridiron juggernaut.  

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For SEC newcomers like Oklahoma and Texas, picking three rivals is easier than you'd expect, given their newfound home, with each program's old foes from the Big 12 (or SWC, in Texas' case) serving as perfect rivals in a nine-game world.  

For the Sooners, that would include yearly clashes with Missouri and Texas A&M, with the former already having a rivalry trophy (The Tiger-Sooner Peace Pipe), with 97 games between the two schools, with Oklahoma holding a 67-25-5 series lead over the Tigers overall. The Sooners and Aggies have met 31 times overall, with OU holding a 19-12 series lead in a rivalry that dates back to 1903.  

SEC Rivalries To Remember 

In our new, nine-game SEC world, the existing rivalry games that have defined fall Saturdays in the Deep South would roll on unimpeded, with Alabama's No. 1 rival being Auburn (and vice versa), while Florida and Georgia would still meet in Jacksonville each year in the game formerly known as The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, as the Longhorns and Sooners would inside the Cotton Bowl in Dallas each fall.  

There would also be a strong argument to be made that Georgia and Alabama would be a no-doubt rivalry pairing, as the two have combined to win five CFP titles, with 74 matchups between the two blue-bloods dating back to 1895, with TV network executives salivating at the thought of the two powers meeting on a home-and-home basis each fall.  

The interesting part of the new scheme is where the second-and-third string rivalries come into play. SEC powers like Alabama (Tennessee and LSU), Georgia (Auburn and South Carolina), LSU (Ole Miss and Florida) and Texas (Texas A&M and Arkansas) can renew long-simmering contests, while some of the conference's up-and-coming or mid-tier teams would have the chance to branch out and create newfound showdowns.  

Take, for instance, South Carolina, which enters the season with +500 odds of reaching the 12-team CFP for the first time in 2025. Head coach Shane Beamer's bunch would have UGA as their No. 1 SEC rival, as the two have played 76 times since 1894, with UGA holding a 55-19-2 lead over the Gamecocks. Outside of the Bulldogs, there's not really a natural rival for South Carolina, however, as they joined the conference in 1991 (alongside Arkansas), leaving little time to build up the vitriol needed to have a true rivalry in their relatively new digs. 

For most SEC members, the three protected rivalry games would simply serve as a means to ensure they get to play the former divisional rivals they squared off against most, though the potential for shuttered rivalries, like Auburn and Florida, to be revived is a tantalizing concept for CFB diehards.  

In the case of the Gators and Tigers, the two schools have met 84 times dating back to 1912, though they've only played once since the SEC's last round of expansion in 2014, with Florida winning inside 'The Swamp' back in 2019, 24-13. Under a nine-game slate, UF and Auburn could renew their longstanding rivalry, preventing the current six-year gap between two of the South's eminent football programs.  

Whether new or old, the nine-game slate that awaits each of the 16 SEC members in 2026 and beyond opens the door for some creative scheduling, giving fans something to look forward to next fall, as we look forward to the opening kick of the 2025 CFB season this weekend across two continents.  

For now, what we know for sure is that the Longhorns are the preseason betting favorite to win the SEC Championship Game in 2025, at +270, while the Bulldogs (+330) and Crimson Tide (+380) are next in line this football season, which is the final one under the league's eight-game structure.