There’s nothing college football’s power structure likes more than cramming as much stuff into tight windows of time.
Case in point, within the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen National Signing Day, the conference championship games, and soon, we’ll have the College Football Playoff.
If that’s not enough, and with college football it never is, the SEC also dropped its 2026 schedules Thursday.
We already knew each team’s opponents. Now we also know when those games will be played.
That means Georgia fans get to pre-worry about how next season will play out while also worrying about how this season will conclude.
Maybe “worry” is too strong of a word, but when I see each game laid out for UGA next fall, I have to say, it doesn’t look easy.
There are games against Alabama and Auburn in consecutive weeks, and a late November road game at South Carolina the week prior to playing in-state rival Georgia Tech. Teams such as Missouri and Vanderbilt cycle back onto the schedule after being absent these last two years, and Oklahoma shows up on a Georgia schedule for the first time since it joined the SEC.
In other words, if you’re ready to look ahead, when you see the Bulldogs’ 2026 slate, you’ll see something you’re no doubt used to seeing -- a schedule that should provide a challenge every week. We wouldn’t expect anything less from the SEC.
Check out the rest of our coverage below.
Trivia time
Georgia’s first dog mascot appeared in 1894. What breed of dog was it?
Answer is at the bottom of the newsletter.
Full 2026 Georgia football schedule announced
The 2026 Georgia football schedule has been announced by the SEC.
The Bulldogs will have nine games against SEC foes, a first for the league. Georgia’s nonconference games come against Georgia Tech, Western Kentucky and Tennessee State. The first game is set for Sept. 5, when the Bulldogs will face Tennessee State in Sanford Stadium:
- Sept. 5: vs. Tennessee State
- Sept. 12: vs. Western Kentucky
- Sept. 19: at Arkansas
- Sept. 26: vs. Oklahoma
- Oct. 3: vs. Vanderbilt
- Oct. 10: at Alabama
- Oct. 17: Vs. Auburn
- Oct. 24: Off
- Oct. 31: vs. Florida, game will be played in Atlanta
- Nov. 7: at Ole Miss
- Nov. 14: Missouri
- Nov. 21: at South Carolina
- Nov. 28: vs. Georgia Tech
Georgia did make one recent change to its schedule, as Georgia and Louisville mutually agreed to cancel a home-and-home series that had been set to start in 2026.
Top 10 Heisman finishers announced
Finalists: Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame running back), Fernando Mendoza (Indiana quarterback), Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt quarterback) and Julian Sayin (Ohio State quarterback).
5) Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech linebacker
6) Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State wide receiver
7) Gunner Stockton, Georgia quarterback
8) Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss quarterback
9) Caleb Downs, Ohio State safety
10) Haynes King, Georgia Tech quarterback
How last year’s CFP gives Stockton a leg up
What a difference a year makes for Stockton.
This time last year, Stockton was fresh off leading Georgia to a come-from-behind win over the Texas Longhorns in the SEC championship game. He had come off the bench to relieve an injured Carson Beck. He was in the midst of preparing for his first career start, which would end up coming against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff.
Entering this year’s College Football Playoff, Stockton is the only quarterback in the 12-team field who has started a College Football Playoff game.
“I think it was huge for him,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said of Stockton. “I think it was really huge for the game, you know, at Tennessee, the game at home. I mean, all the games he played this year, he created value through those experiences. Even the second half of the SEC Championship, man. I mean, he played against — number one, those were huge moments. Those were huge atmospheres."
Photo of the day
Quote of the day
Smart on playing a ninth conference game:
“Those two teams were beat up tonight (during the SEC championship). That was the ninth game of the year. We’re looking at next year having another game. I mean, the coaches in our league are concerned about it, very concerned about it. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t speak my piece and say it’s concerning.”
Georgia ‘No Stars’ theme back in order
The SEC has announced a series of honors and awards on Wednesday, and it was hard to find much Georgia representation at the top.
Don’t be surprised if the “No Stars” mantra makes a return and sparks the teams in the postseason, just as it did in 2021 when the USA Today failed to list any Georgia players on its preseason All-SEC team prior to UGA’s national championship run and record NFL draft class.
The most dangerous Bulldogs under Smart have been those of the underdog variety.
The 2021 version of Georgia got rich off its “No Stars” approach with an NFL-record 15 players drafted — five in the first round.
Now, like then, there were obvious oversights.
This time the slight came from the league coaches who voted on the team, and it started at the top with Smart not winning SEC Coach of the Year.
After all, if the Bulldogs were truly worthy of only one first-team All-SEC selection on offense/defense, as voted on by the league’s coaches this week, than Smart must have done an incredible job.
Georgia emerged from this season as the SEC champion and the highest-ranked team from the league.
But no, the SEC Coach of the Year award went to Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea, whose Commodores improved from 7-6 last season to 10-2 this season.
Trivia answer
Bull Terrier
