New SEC Format? Who Will Be Longhorns Permanent Football Rivals?
The Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners are SEC bound.
With that, new rivalries will be formed, while old rivalries are renewed.
And according to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, big changes could be coming to the format of the conference once the two Big 12 powers officially enter the league.
"The public is very aware because I have received letters still suggesting different scheduling models," Sankey told Paul Finebaum "I can assure people we probably thought about their approach whatever it may be. We have looked at over 40 different formats if you will, and from those formats, there were different models."
One of the predominant theories, and one that Sankey has mentioned, has been a one-division model, in which each team would have three permanent rivals, with the other six conference games rotating on an annual basis.
With that in mind, 247Sports took the opportunity to predict the Longhorns' three permanent SEC rivals.
To no one's surprise, alongside Oklahoma, Texas looks poised to face off with old rivals Texas A&M and Arkansas.
Said 247Sports:
Remember the Southwest Conference? Get ready for more of that from the SEC when Texas enters. Longhorns fans have been waiting years to play Texas A&M annually and bringing Red River to the SEC will be a ratings boom. Toss in Arkansas and that's a near guarantee for the Longhorns' three permanent rivals in the new era. Ironically, Texas will have played Alabama in consecutive years prior to joining the SEC ranks, so the Longhorns will be seasoned against one of the league's best.
Texas has gotten the better of all three of these teams historically, with the Longhorns leading the all-time series with Oklahoma 63-50-5 while leading the Aggies and Razorbacks by overwhelming margins of 76-37-5 and 56-23, respectively.
Texas has also won its most recent matchups with Oklahoma (2022) and Texas A&M (2011), while in the Horns' most recent tilt with Arkansas in 2021, they were dominated in Fayetteville.
You can follow Matt Galatzan on Twitter @MattGalatzan
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