By Zion Murray
The Southeastern Conference has spent decades building one of college football’s premier brands. With fans filling stadiums on any given Saturday and rivalries that carry generations of history, football in the SEC has proven to just mean more. However, in the pursuit of more teams, increased competition, and more revenue, the SEC is risking the traditions that made it special.
In 2024, the SEC expanded from 14 to 16 teams with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma. The league abandoned its divisional format and adopted an eight-game conference schedule, with each school assigned permanent opponents to preserve selected rivalries.
Starting this season, however, the conference made the switch to nine conference games, giving teams three permanent opponents and rotating the remaining matchups. In theory, the move would increase the amount of meaningful games within the conference while strengthening the SEC’s position in the expanded College Football Playoff era.
The move to a nine-game schedule was supposed to make the league stronger. Instead, the way the SEC has structured the expanded schedule threatens to remove annual matchups that should never disappear from the calendar, especially for the Tennessee Volunteers.
For Tennessee fans, the annual showdown with the Florida Gators was never just another conference game. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the matchup between Tennessee and Florida often determined who controlled the SEC East, while producing a plethora of iconic moments.
Now, the Vols and the Gators are not scheduled to meet this season or in 2028. This rivalry matchup is no longer protected annually, as their only scheduled meetings in the initial four-year cycle are in Neyland in 2027 and The Swamp in 2029. A rivalry that once served as an annual measuring stick for both programs has become a date fans must circle every other year.
Another rivalry that will no longer be played annually for the Volunteers is the matchup against Georgia. The Bulldogs have become one of Tennessee’s most consequential opponents, as games between the programs have carried enormous implications for the SEC race and playoff positioning as of late. Yet the Vols do not face Georgia in 2026 or 2028, with the next scheduled meeting coming in Athens in 2027 and the following one in Knoxville in 2029.
The nine-game schedule is not just affecting Tennessee’s rivalries, but instead impacting the entire conference. The annual rivalry game between Alabama and LSU is also taking a hit because of this new structure. The 2026 meeting will be the last annual matchup between the two, breaking a series that has been played every year since 1964. Breaking annual traditions and limiting annual rivalry games is a massive shift in the identity of the conference.
Although the new conference schedule has removed some yearly rivalry games for the Vols, three annual opponents were retained, as Alabama, Kentucky and Vanderbilt will remain on their schedule through the 2029 season. That preserves the Third Saturday in October, the long-running Kentucky series and the in-state rivalry with the Commodores.
The permanent opponents are to be reviewed and could be changed after the first four-year cycle ends in 2029. Meaning that the Vols could have rivalries appear back on their schedule. However, it could come at the cost of their rivalry games already being protected.
With the new structure, the Vols have the opportunity to play in fresh matchups against teams they don’t play a whole ton such as Texas, Auburn and LSU. The Vols will still play in big games, pack Neyland Stadium and retain strong feelings against rivals such as the Gators and the Bulldogs. However, with the current nine-game format, the lack of those annual rivalry games makes the season feel incomplete.