Predicting every SEC team’s three annual rivals in new schedule format

According to Brandon Marcello of CBS sports, a brand new schedule is coming on Tuesday for the 16 teams part of the Southeastern conference in college football.

The league recently adopted a nine-game conference schedule and will overhaul its scheduling model for 2026. The SEC said goodbye to long-standing East and West divisions when Oklahoma and Texas came, but now they'll implement something a little different: annual rivals. Per Marcello's reporting:

"Each team will have three permanent rivals on the schedule, but with a twist: those three opponents will be reviewed every four years, leaving the possibility of further scheduling changes beyond 2030, sources said," he wrote on Thursday. "The three opponents will be referred to as 'annual opponents.'"

He adds: "The SEC is expected to reveal the schedule for its 16 members in primetime Tuesday on the SEC Network, sources said." But why wait for the real thing when we can make up our own theoretical matchups.

So without further ado, take a look at our projections for who each SEC team's annual three rivals will be, at least for this first window:

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

A little Inside Baseball here: the toughest teams to place were the Mississippis and Texas A&M. Outside of each other, Ole Miss and Mississippi State don't have as many heated rivalries within the league, while many of their former SEC West compatriots have more obvious partners. MSU was especially tough: Ole Miss obviously made the cut for the Bulldogs, while Auburn is a longtime SEC West rival, and Oklahoma, frankly, had an odd game out, so that's the single matchup that probably makes the least sense.

Elsewhere, almost every rivalry of importance was protected. You'd probably say that every single school was partnered up with at least their biggest rival in-conference. Hopefully, zero fanbases have a single bad thing to say about the list, but of course that isn't true. Hit me on Twitter if you really need to pick a bone.

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