The SEC is set to announce the conference opponents for all teams on Tuesday night for the 2026-29 seasons, as the conference moves to a nine-game conference schedule. But perhaps the most newsworthy portion of this is who each team’s three “permanent” opponents will be, and that has been leaked by On3’s Chris Low. For Texas A&M, those three opponents are Texas, LSU and Missouri.
Texas and LSU certainly felt like the no-brainers here, as they’re the two teams that most Aggies probably feel we have a the strongest rivalry with. If there were two teams I want us to play every year, it would be them, so it’s good to see those games maintained. Mizzou as the third opponent feels a bit more lukewarm though. Despite sharing a conference with them for 30 years now, it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of animosity between the two schools, though with this becoming an annual game for the first time ever, maybe that will change.
Many Aggies may have wished for Arkansas to be in that third spot, and it makes sense, given the geography as well as the history of the two schools going back to the Southwest Conference days. However, there are a lot of moving parts to this model, so not every school was going to get exactly who they wanted, and if you get your first and second choices but not your third, I think that’s a pretty good outcome. The interesting thing is that A&M and Arkansas actually have the same three permanent opponents, despite not playing one another.
I will say that, at least in the short term, it feels like the Ags got one of the more challenging slates (with Auburn’s opponent trio of Bama/Georgia/Vandy taking the cake), but the good news is that with teams playing every team both on the home and the road over a four-year period, schedules should be much more balanced than they’ve ever been.
The full list of opponents for 2026-29 will be released on Tuesday night, with the dates of the 2026 schedule coming in December.
