Who should be Mississippi State's 9th SEC Opponent?

A year ago, the SEC tossed around the possibility of adding a ninth conference game to teams’ schedule, but those talks were put on hold.

There were enough changes happening last year already, with the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams and the SEC welcoming Oklahoma and Texas into the conference. Based on reporting by The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand and Seth Emerson, those talks may soon recommence. They’re reporting ESPN is willing to pay $50-80 million more to the SEC for a ninth conference game.

 If those numbers are accurate, and we have no reason not to believe, then we’ll soon see the addition of a ninth SEC game. In addition to the money, there is the benefit of teams’ strength of schedule improving and that’ll help with playoff seeding.

But there is the potential for a ninth game to do some damage to conference’s bottom quarter. Imagine if Mississippi had another SEC game last season. Would the Bulldogs still have won two games? Or would that late season game against UMass have been against an SEC team instead?

Be careful what you wish for. It’s not likely this change will be implemented for the upcoming season, just from a scheduling and logistical standpoint, there’s not a lot of time to make the necessary changes and adjustments. Never say never, though.

So, if the Bulldogs had to add a ninth SEC game, who should they want to play? And who would the fans want to them to play?

Let’s start by looking at the current eight SEC teams already on Mississippi State’s schedule for 2025:

• Sept. 27 vs. Tennessee
• Oct. 4 at Texas A&M
• Oct. 18 at Florida
• Oct. 25 vs. Texas
• Nov. 1 at Arkansas
• Nov. 8 vs. Georgia
• Nov. 15 at Missouri
• Nov. 28 vs. Ole Miss

That leaves (in alphabetical order) Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, LSU, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Vanderbilt as potential opponents.

Alabama is probably the answer most people would give. The Bulldogs and Crimson Tide’s history dates back 129 years with 108 total games played. It is a rivalry Alabama has thoroughly dominated, though. Alabama has won the last 16 consecutive meetings and leads the all-time series 87-18-3.

History is important, but maybe a break from the Crimson Tide is best for Mississippi State right now?

If the Bulldogs want a win (which is weird to say considering they’re likely to be picked to finish last in the preseason coaches’ poll), their best bets would be Kentucky, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. In past years, the “easy win” answer would be Vanderbilt, but the Commodores are actually decent-to-good…and have beaten Alabama once in the last 16 years.

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