The topic of SEC football scheduling has been discussed ad nauseum for years now, and at long last we have an answer to what format the league will be using going forward in the 16-team era. Starting in 2026, the SEC will move to a 9-game conference schedule.
Each team in the SEC will have three permanent rivals while rotating through the rest of the conference for the remaining six games. This will allow each team to play everyone both home and away in a four year span.
The conference will maintain its current requirement of playing at least one opponent from either the Big Ten, ACC, or Big 12 in the non-conference slate each year, meaning going forward, each SEC team will play at least 10 games against Power 4 opponents annually.