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dave wilson
The dates for the first nine-game SEC schedule were released Thursday, and all eyes are on Sept. 19, when Lane Kiffin and LSU back to ole miss Following Kiffin’s dramatic exit to Baton Rouge.
Other major sports scheduled for 2026 include: Georgia travels to alabama on October 10 after splitting the two matchups in 2025. In the SEC title game, Alabama won in Athens and Georgia won in Atlanta.
On 14th November, arch manning returned to his home state of Louisiana with texas Facing LSU like East USC And Alabama colleagues Steve Sarkisian and Kiffin faced off.
On November 21, Kiffin takes LSU to Knoxville tennesseeWhich was also removed by Kiffin after one season in 2009.
Kiffin is one of six SEC coaches in new places: Pete Golding, Will Stein at Ole Miss kentuckyon ryan silverfield arkansason alex goulash golden brown color and on John Sumrall Florida,
Steen debuted in the SEC’s first league matchup on September 12, when Alabama travels to Kentucky. There will be two other major matchups that week, when oklahoma travels to michigan And Ohio State Visited Texas. Next week, Alabama gets a rematch at home Florida Statewho defeated the Tide in Week 1 of the 2025 season, and Sumrall and Golesh met in the first Florida–Auburn game on the Plains since 2011.
At Rivalry Week, Texas Texas A&M Remains on Friday, November 27, but the Egg Bowl moves to Saturday mississippi state The Iron Bowl heads to Oxford facing Goulding and Ole Miss, as well as Auburn visiting Alabama.
The new format also allows for some new fan experiences. On September 26, Texas UT will visit Neyland Stadium and Tennessee for the first time in history for a battle for supremacy. On October 17, Kentucky visits Oklahoma for the first time in 46 years, and the Sooners travel to Mississippi State for their first meeting. Texas A&M rekindled the old Big 12 rivalry against Oklahoma in Norman, the first time the two have met since 2011.
To work around the new scheduling rules, some teams will play road games against the same team for the second consecutive year, such as Arkansas, which returns to Texas, and Texas A&M, which returns. missouri,
The additional conference games have limited the amount of programs playing smaller teams in non-conference matchups in Week 12, which is traditionally a tune-up game before rivalry week. This year, there are only four such games on November 21: Alabama (UT-Chattanooga), Auburn (Samford), Ole Miss (wofford) and Mississippi State (tennessee tech,
The league also sought to preserve three annual rivalries for each team, with the remaining six games rotating between the remaining schools. Each team will face every other SEC program at least once every two years and every opponent home and away over a four-year period.
As part of the restructured schedule, the league stated that each school would be required to schedule at least one Power 4 opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Notre Dame.
The top two teams in the league standings based on winning percentage will play in the SEC Championship on December 5 in Atlanta.
