re: The SEC will announce the 2026 9 opponents for its teams this coming Tuesday

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For everyone saying it’s “not” Bama… name the “top 10” SEC matchups for TV.

This is about money. They’re not giving up a top 10 matchup for TV.

LSU-Bama will be an annual matchup

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I mean.. they might lose LSU/Bama every year but they would be gaining:
- LSU/Bama every other year
- LSU/Georgia every other year
- Bama/Georgia every other year
- An additional 8 SEC games, in general, every year.

Also, I would like to think that the SEC came to some sort of agreement with ESPN on additional contract value before formally announcing the change to a 9-game schedule, rather than waiting until they have no leverage whatsoever.

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Also, I would like to think that the SEC came to some sort of agreement with ESPN on additional contract value before formally announcing the change to a 9-game schedule

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I am assuming they did that as well or they would have gone to 9 games two years ago. That said, it’s quite likely the SEC shared with ESPN their plans for annual opponents in order to optimize their revenue in the negotiations.

I believe these are the possible scenarios:

1. Ole Miss (This is a definite due to it being our oldest most tradition rivalry)

2. Texas A&M or Bama (Top Tier Programs & Rivals)

3. OU or Arkansas (We have to have someone to play as our last game of the season and it will be one of these two.)

If you look at the scheduling for this year and the fact that Arkansas has played Missouri in the last game of the season for 10+ years, this points to OU being our permanent end of the year opponent like they have been the last two years. I would prefer Arkansas.

My prediction is they will give us: Ole Miss, Texas A&M & OU.

I will be okay with Ole Miss, Aggies and Sooners, or any combination that doesn't involve Arkansas or Texas.

The most widely reported/speculated permanent opponents from a few years ago listed Bama, Ole Miss and aTm.

Scott Rabalais
@RabalaisAdv
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1h
BK on SEC schedule format coming out Tuesday: The AD here knows (#LSU’s 3 annual opponents) but the head coach doesn’t. You can make a case for a half-dozen teams to be natural rivals, but other teams want those games as well.

My prediction is Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Arkansas, but the third one is what I'm least sure of. You could sub in a number of different schools and have a point for why we're playing them.

Arkansas is highly unlikely. They will be playing Texas, aTm and either Missouri or Oklahoma.

To everyone saying “THE SEC WON’T GIVE BAMA LSU BC THEY HAVE TENNER AND AUBURN”.

It doesn’t work that way any more. At all.

In the past, you shared 6 of the exact same games as half the conference, and only 2 were different, so the one that was the annual opponent carried a ton of weight - essentially 50% of the variables in the conference schedule.

But now, the annual opponent will only be 3 of 9, so only 33% and the selection of the 3 determines the pool to select the other 6.

Let’s suppose there are 8 top teams and 8 bottom teams. I know it’s not that cut and dried, but go with me for a moment.

If Bama gets UT, LSU and AU and we assume those are all top 8 teams, that means that Bama has 3 top teams in it’s schedule, and since they are a top team themself, they would then have 4 other top teams and 8 bottom teams to fill out the other 6. Logic would tell you those would be filled as 4 bottom and 2 top, giving Bama 5 top and 4 bottom in their schedule, which is perfectly reasonable for a top team!

If Bama were to get 2 top and 1 bottom team for annuals, then the remaining pool would be 5 top and 7 bottom. That would mean one year they’d have 3/3 and the other year they’d have 2/4. So in one year they’d have 5 top and 4 bottom (just as if they had LSU/UT/AU) and the other year they’d have 4 top and 5 bottom. HARDLY THE HUGE DISADVANTAGE THAT EVERYONE IS SAYING IT IS!

Now an issue they must resolve is Rivalry Week. As has been detailed everywhere, LSU, OU, Arkansas and Mizzou are the only ones without longstanding rivalries played on the last date of the season. This brings the argument for either Oklahoma or Arkansas. If neither of those are our annual opponents, then there is a solution but it’s not elegant.

Suppose that OU and Arky both have Mizzou, but neither of those have LSU. We could alternate playing Arky and OU on the last week, and the times when we play one, the other plays Mizzou on the last week.