Georgia may be in the middle of their 2026 season, but it's impossible to not look ahead to next year to see what lies ahead. Life in the SEC is always difficult, but unfortunately for Georgia next season is going to be more of a grind than usual.
During the 2027 season Georgia won't get much of a break in conference play because most of the teams they play are having great seasons this year. Sure that doesn't guarantee they'll be good next year, but there's a good chance they will be.
Headlining Georgia's schedule next season is a home game against LSU and a road game at Texas. They also travel to Texas A&M who usually has one of the better rosters in the conference along with another road game at Kentucky who as of now is Georgia's projected opponent in the SEC Championship game.
They also play Auburn who just beat them and Tennessee and Mississippi State who are having solid seasons. The good news is that they don't play anyone good teams in the non-conference, but that doesn't take away from how tough next year's schedule is.
Georgia should enjoy their 2026 schedule while they can
Heading into this season Georgia had the easiest schedule in the conference. So far that has proven to be true.
Georgia has played their fair share of tough opponents with a road game at Alabama and an upcoming road matchup at Ole Miss. Both teams already have two losses though which wasn't expected at this point in the season. Other than them there real isn't a great team on their schedule.
Georgia also avoided Kentucky who as mentioned is on track to make the SEC Championship game. They also avoided Tennessee and Mississippi State while getting Oklahoma and Vanderbilt who are two teams who took a step back this season.
Georgia's schedule in 2026 is easy for the SEC's standards, so they better enjoy it while it lasts.
More big games isn't always a good thing
This is the first season that the SEC added a ninth conference game, and Georgia's schedule next year is showing why it wasn't needed. Schedules in the SEC were already difficult enough, so adding a ninth conference game made things even more challenging which wasn't necessary.
The SEC also is playing 10 Power Four games every season because they require each team to play one non-conference Power Four opponent every year. The Big Ten on the other hand who's bragged about their nine game conference schedule for the past decade doesn't require a non-conference Power Four opponent every season, so the SEC's schedules are automatically more difficult than the Big Ten.
More Power Four games also leads to more injuries which much of the SEC is already having to deal with.
This move makes even less sense after factoring in the College Football Playoff likely expanding to 24 teams. There isn't much of a benefit to playing an extra conference game every season anymore, so it may not be a bad idea for the SEC to change course and go back to eight conference games.
Add us as a preferred source on Google