I believe the SEC is the only conference that doesn't have conference opponents established beyond 2025 (the 2025 opponents are this year's opponents reversed).

So I took a crack at opponents for the next two years, using the following priorities.

Everyone who played Texas plays Oklahoma and vice versa.

Everyone other than Texas and Oklahoma plays all teams that were not in their division in 2023.

The following are the 2026 schedules, the 2027 would be the opposite. Please check for errors or complain about a rivalry broken.

For now, I'll stick to eight opponents.

Alabama:
Home: Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State
Away: Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas

Arkansas:
Home: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky
Away: Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Vanderbilt

Auburn:
Home: Florida, LSU, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
Away: Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas

Florida:
Home: Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
Away: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia (Jacksonville?)

Georgia:
Home: Auburn, Florida (Jacksonville?), LSU, Oklahoma
Away: Arkansas, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas A&M

Kentucky:
Home: Missouri, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
Away: Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Tennessee

LSU:
Home: Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas
Away: Auburn, Georgia, Mississippi State, Tennessee

Mississippi:
Home: Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi State, Tennessee
Away: LSU, Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt

Mississippi State:
Home: LSU, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
Away: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma

Missouri:
Home: Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas
Away: Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi

Oklahoma:
Home: Arkansas, Mississippi State, Texas (Dallas), Vanderbilt
Away: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Texas A&M

South Carolina:
Home: Arkansas, Georgia, Texas, Texas A&M
Away: Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, Missouri

Tennessee:
Home: Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, LSU
Away: Mississippi, Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt

Texas:
Home: Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi, Tennessee
Away: LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma (Dallas), South Carolina

Texas A&M:
Home: Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee
Away: Kentucky, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt:
Home: Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas A&M
Away: Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, Oklahoma

Most notable omissions:
Texas and Texas A&M: In order for all the schools who didn't play Texas in 2024-25 to play them in 2026-27, either Oklahoma or Texas A&M would have to not play them.

Alabama and LSU: Alabama only played Auburn and LSU among old SEC West teams in 2024-25 so Mississippi, Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Texas A&M still want to play them. A&M got the shaft (Alabama is not giving up Auburn and Tennessee and Kentucky and Florida are a priority to get on the schedule along with Texas).

Florida and Tennessee: Tennessee has four SEC West teams they didn't play in 2024-25, they'll want to play Texas for the first time, you're not getting rid of Tennessee-Alabama, and Kentucky and Vanderbilt will want to keep them.

Most notable keep:
Texas A&M and South Carolina: I know they were crossovers in the old format and they played in 2024-25 but near the end I ran out of opponents.

I also had to switch Kentucky/Missouri, Florida/Vanderbilt, and LSU/Mississippi State H/A to make it work, the schools that hosted in 2023 will again host in 2026. The priority for H/A were the pre 2024 unplayed cross divisional opponents and rivalry games.

I imagine the schools that had it easy in 2024-25 will have it tough in 2026-27 and vice versa.

If rivalries had to protected, I would probably remove pre 2024 cross divisional opponents that played in 2023. There are some SEC opponents that haven't played since 2018.

On the off-chance the SEC happens to go to 9 conference games starting in 2026, they could parlay the 24-25 schedule into one for 26-27 that allows each team to play all remaining opponents home and away and 2 opponents from 24-25 home and away once again. Here's what I'm thinking:



The two "divisions" are simply the teams broken into the "strong" and "weak" halves -- my terms -- that the SEC used to design the 24-25 schedule (based on conference record from 2012-22; every team has 4 "strong" and 4 "weak" opponents).

(10-04-2024 11:40 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  On the off-chance the SEC happens to go to 9 conference games starting in 2026, they could parlay the 24-25 schedule into one for 26-27 that allows each team to play all remaining opponents home and away and 2 opponents from 24-25 home and away once again. Here's what I'm thinking:



The two "divisions" are simply the teams broken into the "strong" and "weak" halves -- my terms -- that the SEC used to design the 24-25 schedule (based on conference record from 2012-22; every team has 4 "strong" and 4 "weak" opponents).

Way better than mine! Come on SEC, make it happen!

I took a stab at home/away assignments for 2026 with the 9-game conference schedule:



Read across for home/away assignments. Nh and Na represent neutral-site games that are in place of home and away games, respectively.

And here's a full schedule for 2024-2031:



This of course assumes no membership changes in the interim.

Nerdlinger's permanent rivals starting 2028 (3-6 format)

Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee
Arkansas: Missouri, Mississippi State, Texas
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt
Florida: Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma
Georgia: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina
Kentucky: Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee
LSU: Alabama, Mississippi, Texas A&M
Mississippi: LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri
Mississippi State: Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas A&M
Missouri: Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma
Oklahoma: Florida, Missouri, Texas
South Carolina: Georgia, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Tennessee: Alabama, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
Texas A&M: LSU, Mississippi State, Texas
Vanderbilt: Auburn, South Carolina, Tennessee

Most out of place to me: Auburn-Vanderbilt, Florida-Oklahoma, Mississippi-Missouri, Mississippi State-Texas A&M

I believe Auburn and Florida were a good historical SEC rivalry while Oklahoma and Texas A&M used to be Big 12 South rivals and are close geographically so they would make better pairs, not to mention both share a common enemy. If Vanderbilt's win over Alabama was just a fluke, pair them with Mississippi State for the annual SEC "Battle for the Basement", leaving Mississippi and Missouri with each other ("River Battle"?)

(10-07-2024 05:19 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Nerdlinger's permanent rivals starting 2028 (3-6 format)

Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee
Arkansas: Missouri, Mississippi State, Texas
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt
Florida: Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma
Georgia: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina
Kentucky: Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee
LSU: Alabama, Mississippi, Texas A&M
Mississippi: LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri
Mississippi State: Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas A&M
Missouri: Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma
Oklahoma: Florida, Missouri, Texas
South Carolina: Georgia, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Tennessee: Alabama, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
Texas A&M: LSU, Mississippi State, Texas
Vanderbilt: Auburn, South Carolina, Tennessee

Most out of place to me: Auburn-Vanderbilt, Florida-Oklahoma, Mississippi-Missouri, Mississippi State-Texas A&M

I believe Auburn and Florida were a good historical SEC rivalry while Oklahoma and Texas A&M used to be Big 12 South rivals and are close geographically so they would make better pairs, not to mention both share a common enemy. If Vanderbilt's win over Alabama was just a fluke, pair them with Mississippi State for the annual SEC "Battle for the Basement", leaving Mississippi and Missouri with each other ("River Battle"?)

The protected opponents from 2028-31 are based on the SEC's strong/weak assignments for 2024-25, which admittedly may be outdated by then. But the idea was each strong team gets 2 strong teams and 1 weak team protected, and each weak team gets 1 strong team and 2 weak teams protected. Hence the weird Florida-Oklahoma pairing (both needed a 2nd strong team protected). I picked Vanderbilt for Auburn to give the latter a particularly soft annual opponent relative to Alabama and Georgia -- Vandy's recent upset of Alabama notwithstanding.

My thinking with the protected opponents, at least from 2028 on, is that they're only protected over each 4-year schedule cycle, at which point they can be reassessed and changed if the schools desire, for competitive balance, etc. I'd expect that most would likely stay protected in the next cycle.

(10-07-2024 05:19 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Nerdlinger's permanent rivals starting 2028 (3-6 format)

Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee
Arkansas: Missouri, Mississippi State, Texas
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt
Florida: Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma
Georgia: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina
Kentucky: Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee
LSU: Alabama, Mississippi, Texas A&M
Mississippi: LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri
Mississippi State: Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas A&M
Missouri: Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma
Oklahoma: Florida, Missouri, Texas
South Carolina: Georgia, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Tennessee: Alabama, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
Texas A&M: LSU, Mississippi State, Texas
Vanderbilt: Auburn, South Carolina, Tennessee

Most out of place to me: Auburn-Vanderbilt, Florida-Oklahoma, Mississippi-Missouri, Mississippi State-Texas A&M

I believe Auburn and Florida were a good historical SEC rivalry while Oklahoma and Texas A&M used to be Big 12 South rivals and are close geographically so they would make better pairs, not to mention both share a common enemy. If Vanderbilt's win over Alabama was just a fluke, pair them with Mississippi State for the annual SEC "Battle for the Basement", leaving Mississippi and Missouri with each other ("River Battle"?)

Ole Miss-Vandy is one of the most played series, so you probably shuffle those games to:
Ole Miss-Vandy
Auburn-Mississippi St.
Texas A&M-Missouri
and keep Oklahoma-Florida.

(10-07-2024 01:21 PM)bullet Wrote:  Ole Miss-Vandy is one of the most played series, so you probably shuffle those games to:
Ole Miss-Vandy
Auburn-Mississippi St.
Texas A&M-Missouri
and keep Oklahoma-Florida.

I took my cue on how important Ole Miss/Vanderbilt is to either or both participants by how it was immediately dropped once the league abandoned divisions.

In any case, those pairings would mean Vanderbilt has no "strong" protected opponents and Missouri (also a "weak" team) has 2 strong protected opponents. Obviously the strong and weak assignments can change over time, but I'm just working with what the SEC used.

(10-07-2024 01:52 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(10-07-2024 01:21 PM)bullet Wrote:  Ole Miss-Vandy is one of the most played series, so you probably shuffle those games to:
Ole Miss-Vandy
Auburn-Mississippi St.
Texas A&M-Missouri
and keep Oklahoma-Florida.

I took my cue on how important Ole Miss/Vanderbilt is to either or both participants by how it was immediately dropped once the league abandoned divisions.

In any case, those pairings would mean Vanderbilt has no "strong" protected opponents and Missouri (also a "weak" team) has 2 strong protected opponents. Obviously the strong and weak assignments can change over time, but I'm just working with what the SEC used.

I'm worried with Kiffin there Mississippi-Vanderbilt would become lopsided assuming the expected Vanderbilt. Now if last Saturday's Vanderbilt is "the new normal", it's fine.

(10-07-2024 07:57 AM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(10-07-2024 05:19 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Nerdlinger's permanent rivals starting 2028 (3-6 format)

Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee
Arkansas: Missouri, Mississippi State, Texas
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt
Florida: Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma
Georgia: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina
Kentucky: Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee
LSU: Alabama, Mississippi, Texas A&M
Mississippi: LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri
Mississippi State: Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas A&M
Missouri: Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma
Oklahoma: Florida, Missouri, Texas
South Carolina: Georgia, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Tennessee: Alabama, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
Texas A&M: LSU, Mississippi State, Texas
Vanderbilt: Auburn, South Carolina, Tennessee

Most out of place to me: Auburn-Vanderbilt, Florida-Oklahoma, Mississippi-Missouri, Mississippi State-Texas A&M

I believe Auburn and Florida were a good historical SEC rivalry while Oklahoma and Texas A&M used to be Big 12 South rivals and are close geographically so they would make better pairs, not to mention both share a common enemy. If Vanderbilt's win over Alabama was just a fluke, pair them with Mississippi State for the annual SEC "Battle for the Basement", leaving Mississippi and Missouri with each other ("River Battle"?)

The protected opponents from 2028-31 are based on the SEC's strong/weak assignments for 2024-25, which admittedly may be outdated by then. But the idea was each strong team gets 2 strong teams and 1 weak team protected, and each weak team gets 1 strong team and 2 weak teams protected. Hence the weird Florida-Oklahoma pairing (both needed a 2nd strong team protected). I picked Vanderbilt for Auburn to give the latter a particularly soft annual opponent relative to Alabama and Georgia -- Vandy's recent upset of Alabama notwithstanding.

My thinking with the protected opponents, at least from 2028 on, is that they're only protected over each 4-year schedule cycle, at which point they can be reassessed and changed if the schools desire, for competitive balance, etc. I'd expect that most would likely stay protected in the next cycle.

Then going by your own logic, all of your pairings are wrong!! Florida is a weak team now, and you insist on having strong with strong and weak with weak, so no more Florida-Georgia!! In addition, Oklahoma is too weak to be playing Texas, so say goodbye to the Red River Rivalry also!! Texas should be playing Ole Miss!!

(10-07-2024 05:58 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  

(10-07-2024 07:57 AM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(10-07-2024 05:19 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Nerdlinger's permanent rivals starting 2028 (3-6 format)

Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee
Arkansas: Missouri, Mississippi State, Texas
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt
Florida: Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma
Georgia: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina
Kentucky: Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee
LSU: Alabama, Mississippi, Texas A&M
Mississippi: LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri
Mississippi State: Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas A&M
Missouri: Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma
Oklahoma: Florida, Missouri, Texas
South Carolina: Georgia, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Tennessee: Alabama, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
Texas A&M: LSU, Mississippi State, Texas
Vanderbilt: Auburn, South Carolina, Tennessee

Most out of place to me: Auburn-Vanderbilt, Florida-Oklahoma, Mississippi-Missouri, Mississippi State-Texas A&M

I believe Auburn and Florida were a good historical SEC rivalry while Oklahoma and Texas A&M used to be Big 12 South rivals and are close geographically so they would make better pairs, not to mention both share a common enemy. If Vanderbilt's win over Alabama was just a fluke, pair them with Mississippi State for the annual SEC "Battle for the Basement", leaving Mississippi and Missouri with each other ("River Battle"?)

The protected opponents from 2028-31 are based on the SEC's strong/weak assignments for 2024-25, which admittedly may be outdated by then. But the idea was each strong team gets 2 strong teams and 1 weak team protected, and each weak team gets 1 strong team and 2 weak teams protected. Hence the weird Florida-Oklahoma pairing (both needed a 2nd strong team protected). I picked Vanderbilt for Auburn to give the latter a particularly soft annual opponent relative to Alabama and Georgia -- Vandy's recent upset of Alabama notwithstanding.

My thinking with the protected opponents, at least from 2028 on, is that they're only protected over each 4-year schedule cycle, at which point they can be reassessed and changed if the schools desire, for competitive balance, etc. I'd expect that most would likely stay protected in the next cycle.

Then going by your own logic, all of your pairings are wrong!! Florida is a weak team now, and you insist on having strong with strong and weak with weak, so no more Florida-Georgia!! In addition, Oklahoma is too weak to be playing Texas, so say goodbye to the Red River Rivalry also!! Texas should be playing Ole Miss!!

I guess there are certain rivalries that are just untouchable historically no matter what the records or relative standings of the teams. I guess the question is Ole Miss-Vanderbilt on the same level as Georgia-Florida or Alabama-Auburn. To most outsiders, no, but what would Mississippi and Vanderbilt say? If Mississippi values Vanderbilt as much as Mississippi State, they should get to keep them. If Vanderbilt values Ole Miss as much as they do Tennessee, they should get to keep them.

So here's a tabulation of conference records from 2012-22 that shows how the SEC determined which 8 teams were strong and which 8 were weak for the 2024-25 schedule. I also included 2023, a season which hadn't been completed when the league announced the 2024 schedule.



Who knows what rubric the SEC will use, if any, to determine FB program strength in the future? And even though this system presumably gets increasingly inaccurate the further into the future you go, I have no future data to work with. So I stuck to the one system the SEC has recently used.

I do have an alternate SEC setup for 3 protected opponents per team. I had avoided using it here because I was trying to retain the 2 protected opponents from 2024-27 among the 3 protected opponents in the 2028-31 schedule cycle, and the lack of Ole Miss/Vandy on the 2024-25 schedule actually interfered with that. But it's not really a big deal to rearrange things. Is this better then?



Focusing on just 2028-31 may make the above setup a bit clearer:

Here's a full schedule (dates aside) for 2024-31 using the last table of protected opponents I posted above:

An alternate look at the schedule above. Not sure which is better.

I know single table is all the rage these days but it seems to be the SEC works out just fine with:

East: Florida, Georgia, SC, UK, Tenn, Vandy, Alabama, Auburn
West: Ole Miss, Miss St, Ark, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, TAMU

(10-11-2024 01:38 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I know single table is all the rage these days but it seems to be the SEC works out just fine with:

East: Florida, Georgia, SC, UK, Tenn, Vandy, Alabama, Auburn
West: Ole Miss, Miss St, Ark, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, TAMU

Assuming they move to 9 conference games, any protected crossovers? Alabama/LSU perhaps?

(10-11-2024 01:38 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I know single table is all the rage these days but it seems to be the SEC works out just fine with:

East: Florida, Georgia, SC, UK, Tenn, Vandy, Alabama, Auburn
West: Ole Miss, Miss St, Ark, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, TAMU

I'd be game for Georgia-Alabama every year!

But East/West should be for divisions only, keep best two in the championship game.

(10-11-2024 02:02 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(10-11-2024 01:38 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I know single table is all the rage these days but it seems to be the SEC works out just fine with:

East: Florida, Georgia, SC, UK, Tenn, Vandy, Alabama, Auburn
West: Ole Miss, Miss St, Ark, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, TAMU

Assuming they move to 9 conference games, any protected crossovers? Alabama/LSU perhaps?

I wouldn’t protect anything cross division. I also think a 9th conference game is a must. This would allow you to see everyone in the other division once every 4 years.

Seeing 7 division mates annually is bound to preserve the ferocity of those regional rivalries. Reducing some of these ancient match ups to every-other-year affairs is a huge mistake IMHO.

(10-12-2024 06:23 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(10-11-2024 01:38 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I know single table is all the rage these days but it seems to be the SEC works out just fine with:

East: Florida, Georgia, SC, UK, Tenn, Vandy, Alabama, Auburn
West: Ole Miss, Miss St, Ark, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, TAMU

I'd be game for Georgia-Alabama every year!

But East/West should be for divisions only, keep best two in the championship game.

How do you decide which the "best two" are, if not by division champions?