TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — It used to be the biggest rivalry game of the week, the month — maybe the entire season.
In 2026, Florida and Tennessee will be complete strangers.
Their once-a-year matchup that, back in the day, featured Steve Spurrier, Peyton Manning, Phil Fulmer and snark that sometimes even outweighed the stakes — “You can’t spell Citrus without ‘U-T'" — is absent from the schedule for the first time in 37 seasons.
Alabama-LSU — that’s gone too,
for the first time since 1963.
The Gators and LSU — they’ll miss each other for the first time since 1970.
Such is the price of progress in the Southeastern Conference, which has grown from 10 teams in the old days to 16 now.
The league is introducing a nine-game league slate this season in an attempt to boost strength of schedule for what is now a playoff system that has a committee awarding seven at-large spots in the 12-team field.
“When you look at our schedule, no one has created the kind of weekly competition that exists in the Southeastern Conference,” commissioner Greg Sankey said.
The divisions that once made Florida-Tennessee such a big deal — winner had an inside track for the East, a spot in the conference title game and maybe the national championship — are gone, another product of expansion.
Under the new system, in place through 2029, each school will play three “annual” foes. Some of the SEC’s most ancient rivalries, like Alabama-Auburn, Florida-Georgia and Auburn-Georgia, were preserved.
Others are now less-permanent affairs. Another oldie but goodie that's missing this year, Georgia vs. Tennessee, first played in 1899 and became an annual event in 1992. The Volunteers got the best of the Bulldogs early, but Georgia has won nine in a row and 14 of the last 16 — a run that prompted a question to Georgia coach Kirby Smart on Tuesday about feeling like he has “one less win” on the schedule.
“You said that; not me,” Smart responded. “I got a lot of respect for Josh (Heupel) and their staff. I mean, they’re a tough prep. I’m glad other teams get an opportunity to do that, and then we get some new teams to play.”
Some new teams, yes. Some old rivalries will return, too.
For instance, Arkansas-Texas, a must-see game on the old Southwestern Conference schedule that produced the Game of the Century, attended by President Nixon in 1969, is an annual affair again. Two years ago, Missouri renewed acquaintance with Oklahoma, reupping a rivalry that meant a lot in the Big Eight for a time in the 1970s. And Texas-Texas A&M, the “Lone Star Shootout" and a game held every year between 1915 and 2011, will now be played annually.
Asked about rivalries being renewed and others that, in another effect of realignment, are changing dates — Missouri's season-ending tradition against Arkansas has been moved to Week 8 — Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz said: “I don’t worry about that. I know each and every game in the SEC is extremely difficult.”
The SEC also mandated its teams play a 10th game against a Power Four opponent, which led Kansas and Missouri to renew their so-called "Border War" and created other early season matchups like Oklahoma-Michigan, Clemson-LSU, Ohio State-Texas, Auburn-Baylor, Arkansas-Utah and Arizona State-Texas.
SEC coaches believed moving to a nine-game league schedule would coincide with College Football Playoff expansion, which didn’t happen.
Now, they have tougher schedules, no increased access to the 12-team playoff and a few less rivalries.
“That’s what our conference looks like,” Oklahoma coach Brett Venables said. “Each and every week, you’re not going to sneak up on anybody.”
The Tennessee-Florida rivalry decided the SEC East a dozen times between 1993 and 2009. Spurrier got under Fulmer’s skin with his “Citrus Bowl” comments. Manning, despite all his accolades, went 0-4 against the Gators. The importance of the rivalry diminished beginning in 2011, with both schools falling behind Georgia in the East.
The Florida-LSU matchup has been filled with chaos, controversy and close games. Among the most memorable one: LSU upset No. 1 Florida in 1997, stormed the field and tore down goal posts; the top-ranked Tigers won another close one a decade later by converting five fourth-down plays; in 2020, unranked LSU stunned the sixth-ranked Gators in Gainesville on Cade York’s 57-yard field goal through heavy fog after cornerback Marco Wilson inexplicably threw an opponent’s shoe and kept alive the game-winning drive.
Alabama and LSU played 12 times between 2008 and 2021 with one of them ranked first or second. It often had Western Division and national title implications. Few matchups outweigh the 2011 showdown in which top-ranked LSU knocked off No. 2 Alabama 9-6 in overtime. The Crimson Tide won the rematch in New Orleans two months later for the national championship.
The SEC has been adamant that each team’s annual opponents will be revisited and potentially realigned to maintain competitive balance before the 2030 season. Of course, by then, there’s no telling what the SEC or college football will look like.
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Long reported from Gainesville, Florida.
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