The Southeastern Conference (SEC) sent shockwaves through the college football world on September 23, 2025, by unveiling its long-awaited nine-game conference schedule for the 2026-2029 seasons. The announcement, broadcast live on ESPN2 and the SEC Network, marked a pivotal moment as the league adapts to its expanded 16-team format and the arrivals of Oklahoma and Texas. For Missouri fans, the news brought a fresh slate of annual matchups, high-profile home games, and a new era of rivalry preservation—though not without a few raised eyebrows across the league.
At the heart of the new scheduling model, each SEC team will now face three designated annual opponents for the next four seasons. For Missouri, that means squaring off every year with Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M. The SEC explained that these pairings were determined with a keen eye toward honoring traditional rivalries, ensuring competitive fairness, and aligning with geographic realities. "The annual opponents will be evaluated after each four-year cycle to maintain continued competitive balance," according to the SEC's official release.
Starting in 2026, the SEC will officially shift from an eight- to a nine-game conference schedule. This move brings the league in line with the other Power Five conferences, all of which will require nine league games beginning next season. The SEC has also mandated that teams schedule at least one non-conference game each year against a power-conference foe—meaning a matchup with a team from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, or Notre Dame.
The new format abandons the divisional structure that had defined the league for decades. Instead, the SEC will operate with a single-standings, non-divisional system. Each school will play every other conference member at least once every two years, and will face every opponent both home and away over the course of four years. This rotational frequency aims to foster more variety in matchups and ensure that no rivalry or storyline grows stale.
Missouri’s schedule, in particular, stands out for its balance and intrigue. In 2026, the Tigers will host five SEC home games at Memorial Stadium: Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas A&M. Road trips that year will take them to Arkansas, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State. The following season, Missouri welcomes Arkansas, Auburn, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt to Columbia, while embarking on a daunting road slate against Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas A&M.
The pattern continues in 2028, with home contests against Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M, and away games at Florida, Kentucky, Texas, and Texas A&M. By 2029, the Tigers will host Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, and South Carolina, while traveling to Auburn, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt. The schedule alternates between five home and four away conference games each season, a quirk made necessary by the odd number of league matchups.
The SEC’s athletics directors faced a Herculean task in crafting these schedules. Their stated priorities included honoring historic rivalries, maximizing rotational frequency, ensuring competitive fairness, and optimizing College Football Playoff participation. The league emphasized that annual opponents were selected to preserve the most storied matchups, but also acknowledged that some traditional games did not make the cut for annual protection.
That reality has sparked plenty of debate. Notably, the Alabama-LSU and Florida-Tennessee rivalries—long considered cornerstones of SEC football—were left off the annual opponents list. According to CBS Sports, "Of all the exclusions on the annual opponents list, this one may be the most baffling." The Alabama-LSU rivalry, in particular, is steeped in history: during the 31-year existence of the SEC West, the two teams finished atop the division a combined 22 times and claimed 16 SEC titles. Nick Saban, who famously coached both programs, helped fuel one of college football’s most intense showdowns.
The Florida-Tennessee feud is another casualty of the new format. While the Gators and Volunteers have played the likes of Vanderbilt and Kentucky for longer, the animosity between the two programs reached legendary status in the 1990s and 2000s. The rivalry featured iconic coaching battles, including the memorable clashes between Phillip Fulmer and Steve Spurrier. As CBS Sports noted, "A win against Florida means more than most." Despite Tennessee’s recent resurgence under coach Josh Heupel, the rivalry will no longer be an annual fixture—at least for the next four years.
Still, the SEC has made a concerted effort to preserve as many critical rivalries as possible. Oklahoma and Texas will continue to meet every season, as will Alabama and Auburn, Georgia and Florida, and Texas and Texas A&M. Missouri’s annual trio of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M is designed to honor both tradition and the realities of the league’s new geography. The SEC’s decision to reevaluate annual opponents after each four-year cycle leaves the door open for future adjustments, ensuring that the league can respond to shifting competitive dynamics and fan sentiment.
The new scheduling model also introduces some unique quirks. For instance, some teams will host the same opponent in consecutive years due to the way the rotation works. Missouri, for example, will host Texas A&M at home both in 2025 and 2026. Additionally, the home-and-away pattern will repeat every two years, so teams will see the same opponents at opposite venues in 2028 and 2029 as they did in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
Missouri isn’t the only team facing a challenging slate. Auburn’s 2026 schedule, for example, features showdowns with LSU, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Georgia, and Alabama. Texas, meanwhile, managed to avoid playing both Alabama and Georgia in the same season, instead alternating those matchups across the four-year span. The SEC’s approach attempts to balance the competitive load while maintaining the drama and spectacle fans have come to expect.
As for the broader impact, the SEC’s move to a nine-game schedule completes a trend across all major conferences. With the ACC’s recent decision to expand its own conference slate, every Power Five league will now play nine conference games each year. This shift is expected to produce more marquee matchups, boost television ratings, and provide a clearer path to the College Football Playoff.
For Missouri and its SEC brethren, the 2026-2029 schedules represent both continuity and change. The Tigers will renew old rivalries, forge new ones, and navigate a gauntlet of high-stakes matchups. With the full 2026 schedule—including specific game dates—set to be announced later this year, the anticipation is already building in Columbia and across the conference. One thing’s for sure: the next four seasons promise to be some of the most compelling in SEC history.
