Yesterday afternoon the SEC released the 2026 schedules for league schools, and around the Southland the reaction seems to have largely bee ““ouch.”
The reason? As you likely know the league has decided
to play 9 conference games for the first time next season, that in and of itself ratchets up the level of difficulty a fair bit. But the cherry on top is that due to the way the calendar falls there are only 13 Saturdays between the late August/early September start of the season and the last week of November. That means teams will take on the new, tougher schedule with one bye week rather than the two they enjoyed in 2024 and 2025. Talk about star-crossed.
At any rate, here’s the Red and Black’s slate:
Obviously the home lineup is a real step down from 2025. We joked in 2024 that season ticket holders were really paying a year in advance to see Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas all visit Athens. This lineup of home games similarly suffers by comparison. Admittedly the September 26th home date with Oklahoma should be a pretty compelling football game, and the next week will provide Georgia its first chance to reacquaint itself with the newly mouthy Vanderbilt Commodores. But all-in-all these are not the titanic clashes we were promised with conference expansion.
The league will once again send Georgia to Tuscaloosa to play the Tide because, as previously discussed ad nauseum in this space, we are now the league’s prize pony and are going to be trotted out to boost television ratings at every available opportunity. In return however we get to go play Arkansas in Fayetteville, which isn’t a terrible trip if you’ve never made it.
The ‘Dawgs also have an uncharacteristic November trip to Columbia to take on South Carolina. I’m not sure what Williams-Brice Stadium feels like when the temperature is under 100 degrees. But I have been to Columbia itself during the winter months, and can assure you it still looks like a giant strip mall, albeit with no leaves on the trees.
The Bulldogs will also take on at least four teams breaking in new head coaches. I say at least four because as round two of the coaching carousel kicks off both Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz and Vandy’s Clark Lea remain options for certain deep-pocketed programs.
And perhaps most historic is the Halloween matchup with Florida in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It’s going to be weird, I don’t like it, and once it’s over we’re never going to speak of it again.
‘What are your thoughts? Will this be the year an SEC head coach stumps for the playoff with a straight face after losing four games? Is eleven tailbacks enough to make it through this gauntlet? And how close is it safe to get to WKU’s amorphous, globular mascot, Big Red?
Go ‘Dawgs!!!
