How do the pieces fit? With the SEC expanding from 14 teams to 16 with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas, it was only a matter of time before the league adopted a nine-game conference schedule. The Big Ten and Big 12 have had ones of this size for a while. The ACC is also joining suit to make sure all four Power four leagues have some scheduling uniformity in the coming seasons to save the sport.
One of the most intriguing parts about the new nine-game SEC schedule is the notion of each team having three permanent rivals in this newfangled 3-6 model. The preferred term the SEC is using is annual opponent, but it lacks the juice of permanent rival, to be totally honest. Not every rivalry was going to be protected, and not every team was going to end up getting their top three choices in this.
On3's Chris Low was the one to break who each team's three annual opponents will be through 2029.
BREAKING: Annual SEC College Football opponents for the next 4 seasons per @clowfb👀 https://t.co/nm9NpSUTc2 pic.twitter.com/G0X3qkgJq7
— On3 (@On3sports) September 22, 2025
As you can see by this sweet graphic from On3's X account, the Georgia Bulldogs draw the Auburn Tigers, the Florida Gators and the South Carolina Gamecocks as their first three annual opponents. There was no way the SEC was going to do away with either The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry or The Cocktail Party. Figuring out the third game was not as easy, but settling on this border war was sound.
Here is why South Carolina being Georgia's third annual opponent is not even the least bit surprising.
Why Georgia football fans could have forecasted South Carolina as a rival
When putting this together, the SEC tried its best to maintain as many traditional rivalries as humanly possible. Georgia was always going to get Auburn and Florida, just like Auburn was going to retain Alabama to keep the Iron Bowl alive. The Tigers' other rival is Vanderbilt, which is weird, while Florida's two others are South Carolina for the Spurrier Bowl and Kentucky, with whom they share a hoops one.
South Carolina was one of four schools that had a chance to be Georgia's third annual opponent, along with Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. The Crimson Tide drew three very obvious ones in Auburn, Tennessee for The Third Saturday in October and Mississippi State for The 90-Mile Drive. Alabama may share a border with Georgia, but that was always the least likely rivalry to manifest.
The next one to be crossed off was Tennessee. The Volunteers were always going to draw Alabama and in-state rival Vanderbilt. Kentucky has a more storied rivalry with Tennessee than it does with Georgia, so that was going to win out in the end. You also have to keep in mind that Kentucky is more of a basketball school, so it does not have the football rivalries like stronger programs like Georgia do.
And then it came down to Kentucky and South Carolina. Kentucky draws Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee, while South Carolina got Georgia, Florida and Kentucky. It may not look like much, but the On3 graphic has Georgia listed as South Carolina's No. 1 rival, whereas Georgia has the Gamecocks third. This is because South Carolina has struggled to build any rivalry since joining the SEC in 1992.
Like Georgia, they have a huge in-state rivalry. The Dawgs play the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate, while South Carolina wrangles with Clemson in The Palmetto Bowl. Because Georgia and South Carolina share a border, as well as having been in the SEC East from 1992 to 2023, these programs have played all the time in their history. Plus, they hate each other...
This stems from former Florida head coach Steve Spurrier taking over the program in 2005. His run of dominance in Columbia coincided with some perpetually frustrating Mark Richt nonsense to start seemingly every season. The fact that Shane Beamer served on both Spurrier's and Kirby Smart's staffs makes this an intriguing rivalry that could potentially make the new SEC schedule even better.
Overall, anyone who thought Georgia's third permanent opponent would be anyone other than Kentucky or South Carolina was totally misguided. Fortunately for Dawg Nation, logic prevailed and Georgia got a strong tertiary rivalry to round out its schedule. While getting much easier wins over Kentucky annually would have been preferable, South Carolina needed a No. 1 and it got Georgia.
For now, let's sit back and see what the rest of the 2026 regular-season schedule could provide us.