As Sam Pittman asks for Texas, who should Georgia’s 3 potential permanent rivals be?

Like many college football fans, former Georgia offensive line coach Sam Pittman wants to see big rivalry games. Specifically for his Arkansas Razorbacks, he would like to see the two future conference foes play on an annual basis.

“I love the rivalry games and would hate, once Texas gets into the league, not to play them every year, for the fans and everybody else,” Pittman told ESPN’s Chris Low. “I’m not calling out Texas. Texas has a great program, and I have high respect for them. I’m just saying for the fans, and obviously for the team because we’ve got a lot of Texas kids on our team, I think it would be a neat home-and-home each year.”

The looming additions of Texas and Oklahoma signal that change is coming to the SEC schedule. While the league could not come to an agreement on a future scheduling model at spring meetings, the two models are an eight-game format that features one permanent rival and a nine-game format that has three annual opponents, with the other six games being a rotation.

In the eight-game format, which would likely help the SEC’s chances of getting multiple teams into the College Football Playoff, Georgia’s rival would be Florida. Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin made it clear that the series would continue last month and would want it to do so in Jacksonville, Fla.

This schedule format though would jeopardize the series against Auburn, also known as the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.

Other marquee games such as Alabama-Tennessee, LSU-Ole Miss and a potential Texas-Texas A&M game would be lost on an annual basis as well.

That is why the nine-game format is viewed as the more popular option among fans.

“It’s hard because I really want to add the game, but I want to do it more for the fans,” Smart said in a recent interview with Paul Finebaum. “I really feel like fans and the consumers that come to our games, they want the best games. They want the intraconference. They want to see SEC play SEC teams. So I want to give them what they want.”

In the event the league goes to a nine-game format, Florida and Auburn would occupy two of the rivalry spots. As for the third team, South Carolina and Tennessee are both seen somewhat as rivals, but not nearly as fiercely as Florida and Auburn.

Georgia does not have the same shared history with the Volunteers and Gamecocks, but the sides have met every year dating back to 1992 when the SEC divisions were formed. Tennessee has a superior historical pedigree and would fall into the argument of the league wanting to have more marquee matchups.

But South Carolina sees Georgia as its biggest rival. Georgia is also the SEC school that is closest to South Carolina in terms of proximity. What’s more is that in addition to likely games against Alabama and Florida, the Volunteers also have in-state rival Vanderbilt to consider.

While fans might hope for more games against the Volunteers, a matchup against South Carolina seems far more likely given the reasons outlined.

Either scenario though does point to the end of divisions. That means less frequent games against the Kentucky’s and Missouri’s of the world, and seeing foes like Alabama, LSU and even Texas more often than Georgia currently does.

Consider that Georgia and Texas A&M have played just once since the Aggies joined the league back in 2012 and don’t go to College Station, Texas, until the 2024 season.

Sacrificing an annual game against Tennessee might be worth it to see the rest of the league and play against some of those marquee opponents.

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