BREAKING: We Have the SEC's Permanent Annual Opponents and a Ranking of All 16

So much for that Tuesday night TV special. We have the first batch of SEC annual opponents 36 hours early thanks to Chris Low. As a reminder, these can change after four years but from 2026-29, these are the opponents each SEC team will play every year with the other 12 rotating every other year.

It seems that, for the most part, the SEC went with the traditional rivalries it had to include and then aimed for fairness from there. Alabama, for instance, had to have Auburn and Tennessee, but then it could have also had Georgia or LSU as its third game if the league wanted to go for the biggest matchups and best TV product. Instead, the Crimson Tide got Mississippi State as a bit of an olive branch. Same thing with Auburn getting Vanderbilt after its must-haves of Alabama and Georgia.

If I had to pick the team that may have a bit of a gripe in regards to feeling like it got screwed, I guess it would be Oklahoma or Texas A&M, both of whom got Missouri as their third game instead of Arkansas, which would have made sense for either program. Neither of those teams should be a significant hurdle consistently if you want to be competing for championships, but there's certainly a massive gap between the two right now.

And the team every other fanbase is going to be bitching about is Tennessee, which will play Vanderbilt and Kentucky every year in addition to the Third Saturday in October against Alabama. I honestly wanted the Tennessee-Florida game to continue every year instead of Kentucky, but I don't make the schedule, folks. The Vols and Wildcats have played 120 times — fourth-most of any SEC rivalry — and the SEC kinda had to give UK that game every year. From a competitive standpoint, I love it, though.

Here's how I'd rank the draws, from most favorable to least:

1. Tennessee

2. Georgia

3. Vanderbilt

4. Florida

5. Kentucky

6. Ole Miss

7. Mississippi State

8. Missouri

9. Texas

10. LSU

11. Alabama

12. Oklahoma

13. Arkansas

14. South Carolina

15. Texas A&M

16. Auburn