With such a titantic clash coming this weekend in Athens, it seems silly to be talking about the future.
And yet, you can’t help but not do so with Tuesday night’s announcement of who each SEC team will play, home and away, for the next four seasons. This all comes after the league made the call to move to a nine-game conference schedule. That in itself is a win-win for all fans. With apologies to the FCS fans of the world, Georgia fans devote time and resources to head to Athens each fall, and that devotion deserves more games of consequence. This scheduling model does that.
The first thing to jump out, of course, is who Georgia’s constant opponents each year will be. Thankfully, the rivalries with Auburn and Florida remain, with more or less one rival game, Tennessee, being swapped out for another in South Carolina. Is the South Carolina game one with as much juice as Tennessee? No, but it still means a lot to a lot of fans on both sides, especially near Augusta. And it’s also worth noting that Georgia and UT won’t play again in 2029, making this year’s win over the Vols all the more sweeter. It’s also worth pointing out from a historical standpoint that Georgia and Tennessee didn’t play annually until the SEC division structure began in 1992.
Did some teams get off easy on their annual opponents? Maybe. But if you’re going to win this league, you are going to have to take on the best at some point, and with the expanded postseason format, one loss does not wreck a season anymore. Also, you don’t know how good a team will be in two or three years. Think about if a team was told three years ago it would have to play Vanderbilt compared to this season…
Speaking of traditional rivalries, the next two years will continue the last two seasons with Ole Miss staying on the schedule. If you want to turn back the clock a bit, Georgia played the Rebels on a very regular basis, going against one another each year from 1966 to 2002. It’ll be good to, at least to a degree still play the Rebels, especially if you road trip and enjoy the Oxford tailgate scene.
It’s hard to think that the presence of another team from the western realm of the conference is not totally driven by the SEC’s quest for big brands vs. big brands. Georgia and Alabama will play in 2026 and 2028. The Crimson Tide of today are not the Nick Saban version, but mention Georgia and Alabama, and it draws eyeballs.
Speaking of crimson…2026 welcomes Oklahoma to Athens for the first time with a return trip to Norman in 2028 that’ll have a humdinger of a road slate to also include Mizzou.
And speaking of road trips, this alignment opening up one more conference game is already boasting some intrigue for all of the Road Dawgs. 2026 calls for road games at Alabama, Arkansas, and Ole Miss. The most attractive? The Texas-two step in 2027 with trips to both Texas AND Texas A&M. Yes, for the first time since the Aggies joined the league in 2012, the Dawgs head to College Station. For fans that love to travel, this one is probably already being circled, especially for all of the Ag Dawgs.
Go Dawgs!
