Beginning in the 2026 season, the SEC is moving to a nine game conference schedule. This change has also forced the SEC to overhaul the format of their entire conference schedule because of this announcement.
This new format consists of each SEC team playing three opponents every season while rotating between the other 12 teams every other year. This guarantees that Georgia will host every SEC team at least once every four years while also traveling to every opponent's stadium every four years as well.
The SEC however did not share what those schedules will look like when their original announcement was made, but it has just been reported that the 2026 SEC schedules will be released next Tuesday, Sep. 23.
The SEC will reveal Tuesday *all* opponents for every team in its new 9-game schedule for football in 2026, sources tell @CBSSports. The 3 "permanent" rivals will be referred to as "annual opponents," which will be reviewed every 4 years. pic.twitter.com/yOf21Sdx4T
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) September 18, 2025
Georgia learns fate of 2026 season next week
The biggest question that every Georgia fan wants asnwered is who their three annual opponents will be under this new format. Florida and Auburn more than likely will be two of three teams UGA plays every year, but that third team could be anyone else. South Carolina and Tennessee were thrown around by fans as two potential options for Georgia, but UGA will find that out next week.
Georgia will also learn who their six other opponents will be next season, but those details aren't that important. As mentioned, Georgia will rotate between the other 12 SEC teams every other year in two groups of six. So UGA will play the same group of six teams in 2026 and 2028 with the other group of six in 2027 and 2029.
It will be fun to see which six teams Georgia plays next season, but at the end of the day it really doesn't matter because whatever teams are not on Georgia's schedule in 2026 will be played in 2027.
1 big problem on Georgia's 2026 schedule
Georgia will now only play three non-conference opponents every season because of the SEC schedule changes. This is a big problem for Georgia in 2026 beause they already hvae four non-conference opponents scheduled. This clearly means UGA will have to cancel on someone, but that is a tough choice to make.
There is no chance that Georgia will cancel on Georgia Tech, so that leaves UGA with three other teams. The Bulldogs have home games against Tennessee State and Western Kentucky next season along with a road game at Louisville. One of those three games will have to be canceled, and unfortunately the best choice likely is Louisville. While it would be fun to play a new power four opponent, Georgia already has 10 power four opponents on their schedule, so should they really keep Louisville and play 11?
That may not be the best idea.
That decision likely won't come for some time still, but thankfully Georgia fans will learn Georgia's fate of their 2026 schedule next week.