Top 10 SEC rivalries that won’t be played every year in the 9-game schedule era

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On Tuesday, the SEC will unveil every team’s conference opponents for the next four football seasons, including three designated annual foes for its 16 members. But the three finalized rivals each team will see every year went public on Monday, and most of the pairings made sense.

The SEC protected historic rivalries such as Georgia-Auburn and Alabama-Tennessee and games that mattered to nearby fan bases like Tennessee-Kentucky and South Carolina-Georgia. A handful of the annual matchups, like Missouri-Texas A&M and Oklahoma-Ole Miss, are far from rivalries, and those may be most likely to rotate after this four-year block when the league reassesses its schedules.

The SEC brass has not said what it used as a competitive balance barometer, but no team drew more than two permanent opponents in the upper half of the league’s wins leaderboard over the College Football Playoff and BCS eras. That tenet may allow for fair scheduling, but it cost the league one of its best annual rivalries.

Of the 21 all-SEC matchups ranked in The Athletic’s Top 100 Rivalries countdown this summer, 15 are protected over the next four years. Below, we list the SEC’s 10 best rivalries that for now will no longer played each year — starting with the most obvious omission.

1. Alabama-LSU

This loss is painful. The LSU-Alabama series has become a staple of the November schedule, and the rivals have played every year since 1964. At least one team was ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in 12 of those matchups, and the programs have combined for nine national titles since 2003.

Alabama-LSU, which ranked No. 14 in The Athletic’s Top 100, was a victim of its own importance. Alabama’s historic rivalries with Auburn and Tennessee take precedence over any other game. If the Crimson Tide were to play LSU every year, that’d be three annual Crimson Tide opponents who rank in the SEC’s upper half in victories since 1998. Instead, the SEC gave Alabama its closest neighbor, Mississippi State.

LSU has a plethora of rivalries including Ole Miss, Arkansas and Texas A&M, all of which were designated as permanent foes for the next four years.

2. Tennessee-Florida

While this game had no real chance at annual preservation due to both sides’ rivalry priorities, it’s still a bummer to see it cycle off their schedules. Tennessee-Florida (No. 36 in The Athletic’s Top 100) is a rivalry created by realignment, when the SEC placed both schools into the East Division in 1992. From 1916 until 1990, they played only 19 times. From 1990 through 2002, both teams were mainstays in the top 10, setting the stage for the SEC’s best rivalry over that time frame.

Florida has only one SEC foe it must play every year: Georgia. Tennessee, however, has three important rivalries in Alabama, in-state foe Vanderbilt (which it has played 118 times entering this season) and Kentucky (120 meetings). That made this series expendable.

3. Alabama-Georgia

Let’s start with the obvious: This had no shot at getting protected. Both programs must play Auburn, and the Alabama-Tennessee and Florida-Georgia rivalries are woven into the fabric of college football. But even for these border heavyweights to face off twice every four years is a win. This week’s matchup marks just the fourth time the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide have met in the regular season since 2008. Over that time frame, Alabama-Georgia (No. 50 in The Athletic’s Top 100) played four times in the SEC title game and twice for the CFP title.

4. Tennessee-Georgia

Both Tennessee and Georgia are in the running for the most rivals of any team in the country. This series has a limited number of games — they didn’t play at all for a 31-year stretch and met just eight times from 1937 until 1992. But Tennessee-Georgia (No. 53) has produced some massive games in recent years. The teams have battled 20 times as ranked opponents, and their 2022 game featured the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in Sanford Stadium history.

5. Florida-LSU

During the divisional era, this was a permanent crossover series. Then Florida-LSU (No. 64) played some outstanding games and have met every year since 1971, which justified keeping the rivalry intact. They have faced off in 25 ranked matchups, second-most among longtime SEC rivalries behind only Alabama-LSU. It’s also an unpredictable series, with the teams combining for nine top-10 upsets (Florida won five of those, LSU four).

6. LSU-Mississippi State

This was the only SEC series with more than 100 meetings to get sacked. LSU-Mississippi State (No. 100 in the Top 100) has been played 117 times, but it became collateral damage of the expanded SEC’s schedule adjustments in the last two years. LSU could have a full SEC slate of opponents deemed a rival (including Auburn), but the Tigers’ surging series with Texas A&M and its propensity for great games with Arkansas take precedence. Mississippi State preserves the Egg Bowl with Ole Miss and gets an 80-mile drive to Alabama, plus four years of dates with Vanderbilt.

7. Auburn-Florida

There was hope this one might return to yearly status, but it was unfair competitively. Auburn already has games with Alabama and Georgia, which rank No. 1 and No. 2 in total victories in the BCS/CFP era among SEC teams. To add Florida (which was sixth) would create some major schedule disparity for the Tigers. Some Florida fans contend Auburn was the Gators’ No. 2 SEC rival after Georgia before the Tigers cycled off the schedule. It’s too bad because the teams played every year from 1945 through 2002, with 84 total meetings (Auburn leads 43-39-2).

8. Texas A&M-Arkansas

This former Southwest Conference series will stage its 82nd meeting this fall, but it moves to rotational status beginning in 2026. The Aggies and Razorbacks returned to each other’s schedule in 2009 (three seasons before Texas A&M joined the SEC), and 13 of their last 17 games were played in Arlington, Texas. But for the future, it just didn’t line up for the teams to play every year. Both programs landed Texas and LSU as rivals, and the SEC has built enough equity with Missouri-Arkansas to nudge it forward for the next four-year block. The Aggies also will play former Big 12 colleague Missouri annually in what appears to be a last-team-standing type of decision.

9. Ole Miss-Arkansas

Had the Razorbacks not landed LSU as a permanent foe, the Rebels looked like a strong possibility. The programs played 11 years in a row before Arkansas joined the SEC in 1992, and this fall marks the 45th consecutive year they’ve faced off. In their last 35 meetings, Arkansas holds an 18-17 edge. Their rivalry includes embattled coach Houston Nutt, who guided Arkansas until it upset No. 1 LSU in the 2007 regular-season finale, then resigned under fire and accepted Ole Miss’ coaching position within hours of his departure.

10. Kentucky-Vanderbilt

When great SEC rivalries are discussed, this one doesn’t get mentioned. But for the programs, it’s an important game. They’ve played 97 times and every year since 1953. The campuses are separated by about 220 miles, and Kentucky considers Nashville a critical outreach zone for alumni. The Wildcats lead 49-44-4, and the winner of this game often had a decent shot at a bowl game. But as part of scheduling balance considerations, each program gets Tennessee and then two other opponents — Kentucky with Florida and South Carolina, Vanderbilt with Auburn and Mississippi State.

(Photo: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)

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