BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (September 23, 2025) – The Southeastern Conference on Tuesday announced the opponents and sites for SEC football games for the 2026 through 2029 seasons.
The SEC announced in August it would play a nine-game conference schedule starting with the 2026 season. In the new format, each SEC school will play every other SEC school at least once every two years, and every opponent home and away over four years, making it the most fair and balanced schedule in the history of the Conference.
Under the new format, each school will play three annual opponents focused on maintaining many traditional rivalries and each team’s remaining six games will rotate among the remaining conference schools. The SEC will continue with a single-standings, non-divisional structure.
Annual Opponents
Annual opponents were determined with consideration given to traditional rivalries, competitive fairness, geography and alignment with existing non-conference home/away commitments
Annual opponents will be evaluated after each four-year cycle to maintain continued competitive balance
Rotating Opponents
The remaining six conference games will come from a rotating pool of the other conference teams
The rotating schedule is designed so that a team will play every other conference opponent at least once every two years and twice (once at home and once away) over a four-year period
Balance
With nine conference games, eight schools will play five home games each season and eight schools will play four home games
Home/away determination was made with the intent of providing seven home games for each school while balancing existing home/away commitments to annual non-conference rivalry games.
To meet the scheduling priorities established by the conference and its members, the 2026 conference schedule includes cases where schools play at the same venue in back-to-back years. This has occurred in the past when the SEC has changed football scheduling formats.
In addition to the conference opponents, SEC teams are required to schedule at least one additional high quality non-conference opponent from the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten or Big 12 conferences or Notre Dame each season.
The complete 2026 SEC Football Schedule to include dates of games will be announced later this year.
