The biggest question from Auburn fans surrounding the SEC’s newly announced nine-game format for conference football schedules is, “who will Auburn’s third permanent conference rival be?”
The good news is that the answer could be revealed in a few short months.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey revealed the projected timeline for the release of the newly formatted schedule during a recent episode of the Paul Finebaum Show. Sankey told host Finebaum that he plans to share the schedule with member programs during the midway point of the football season, with the public release slated for December.
Sankey admits to Finebaum that putting together the schedule will require plenty of planning, but the SEC office plans to be swift with their work.
“There’s been a lot of pre-work. We have had great work among our staff. … We’ll be rapid, but remember, when we went in Destin two years ago, we took a couple more weeks and we had that mid-June announcement of opponents. And then, we had a later announcement of the schedule. So we want to create opportunities for interest and celebration, and we’ll do much the same in the weeks and months ahead.”
The SEC revealed this week that its football teams will implement a nine-game conference slate beginning in 2026 and will require each team to play one non-conference game against a team from the Big Ten, ACC, or Big 12 conferences, as well as Notre Dame, which ensures each team will play 10 games against Power opponents.
The new format will feature three permanent opponents for each team, with the six remaining games played on a rotational basis. Auburn will face every SEC team at least once every two years, and will visit every SEC team’s home stadium once every four years. The revamped conference schedule format will allow Auburn to re-kindle rivalries with teams such as Florida,…
Source link : https://auburnwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/auburn/football/2025/08/24/sec-football-nine-game-schedule-release-timeline-greg-sankey/85803251007/
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Publish date : 2025-08-24 10:03:00
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