BATON ROUGE – LSU Football will play Arkansas, Ole Miss and Texas A&M annually beginning in 2026, the Southeastern Conference announced on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the league office announced opponents and sites for SEC football games for the 2026 through 2029 seasons. The new scheduling is a result of the league implementing a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2026.
In the new format, each SEC school will play every other SEC school at least once every two years, and every opponent home and away over four years, making it the most fair and balanced schedule in the history of the Conference.
Under the new format, each school will play three annual opponents focused on maintaining many traditional rivalries and each team’s remaining six games will rotate among the remaining conference schools. The SEC will continue with a single-standings, non-divisional structure.
In addition to the conference opponents, SEC teams are required to schedule at least one additional high quality non-conference contest against a team from the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten or Big 12 conferences or Notre Dame each season.
The SEC used the following to determine annual and rotating opponents for the next four years:
Annual Opponents
• Annual opponents were determined with consideration given to traditional rivalries, competitive fairness, geography and alignment with existing non-conference home/away commitments
• Annual opponents will be evaluated after each four-year cycle to maintain continued competitive balance
Rotating Opponents
• The remaining six conference games will come from a rotating pool of the other conference teams
• The rotating schedule is designed so that a team will play every other conference opponent at least once every two years and twice (once at home and once away) over a four-year period.
Balance
• With nine conference games, eight schools will play five home games each season and eight schools will play four home games
• Home/away determination was made with the intent of providing seven home games for each school while balancing existing home/away commitments to annual non-conference rivalry games.
• To meet the scheduling priorities established by the conference and its members, the 2026 conference schedule includes cases where schools play at the same venue in back-to-back years. This has occurred in the past when the SEC has changed football scheduling formats.
The complete 2026 SEC Football Schedule to include dates of games will be announced later this year.
LSU’s 2026 home schedule will feature conference games against Texas A&M, Alabama, Mississippi State and Texas.
Texas will be making its first trip to Tiger Stadium since 1953 next year. LSU will open the 2026 season against Clemson in Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers will go on the road to face Arkansas, Ole Miss, Auburn, Kentucky and Tennessee next season.
Teams in bold indicate LSU’s annual SEC opponents.
2026
Texas A&M
at Arkansas
at Ole Miss
Alabama
Mississippi State
Texas
at Auburn
at Kentucky
at Tennessee
2027
at Texas A&M
Arkansas
Ole Miss
Missouri
Vanderbilt
Oklahoma
at Florida
at Georgia
at South Carolina
2028
Texas A&M
at Arkansas
at Ole Miss
Auburn
Kentucky
Tennessee
at Alabama
at Mississippi State
at Texas
2029
at Texas A&M
Arkansas
Ole Miss
Florida
Georgia
South Carolina
at Missouri
at Vanderbilt
at Oklahoma
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