ATHENS — Kirby Smart was not directly asked about Georgia’s future SEC schedules on Tuesday, but that didn’t stop him for talking about it anyway.
The Georgia coach did not seem as thrilled about the future schedules as those speaking on the SEC Network on Tuesday night.
“It’s hard. I mean, it’s brutal,” Smart said. “And everybody’s the same. I mean, we all gotta play each other. It’s really tough, highly ranked teams, physical teams. It’s just going to continue to be a grind. I mean, looking forward with the nines coming, it’s going to be scary because you just don’t have enough. Nobody has enough depth.”
That depth will be tested with the SEC moving to nine conference games next season. Georgia got its first look at what those schedules will look like, as the league unveiled every schedule from 2026 through 2029.
Georgia football future SEC opponents, schedule
- 2026: Florida (Atlanta), at South Carolina, at Alabama, at Ole Miss, at Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Auburn
- 2027: Florida (Tampa), at Auburn, at Kentucky, at Texas, at Texas A&M, LSU, Mississippi State, Tennessee, South Carolina
- 2028: Florida (Jacksonville), at Oklahoma, at Missouri, at Vanderbilt, at South Carolina, Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, Arkansas
- 2029: Florida (Jacksonville), at LSU, at Mississippi State, at Tennessee, at Auburn, South Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Texas A&M
Dates for the upcoming 2026 schedule will be announced in December. The home and road splits will be flipped in 2028 for the 2026 schedule and 2029 for the 2027 slate.
As for what all this means for the Bulldogs, below are four takeaways from the next four years of SEC games.
Back to Alabama and Ole Miss in 2026
Georgia will still have to wait another year to visit Kyle Field, as the SEC opted to once again put off the Georgia-Texas A&M game.
In its place is another trip to Alabama.
In 2026, Georgia’s road games come against Alabama, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Arkansas.
Georgia faced a similar road slate a season ago, when it went on the road and lost to both Alabama and Ole Miss. Georgia gets both of those teams in Sanford Stadium over the course of the next month.
Georgia welcomes Oklahoma to Athens in 2026. It will be only the second time the two programs meet, with the other being the iconic 2018 Rose Bowl. That is undoubtedly Georgia’s biggest home game next season.
Texas two-step in 2027
Georgia will visit the state of Texas twice in the second year of the new conference scheduling.
The league gave Georgia trips to Texas and Texas A&M during the 2027 season. Georgia won in Austin, Texas, last season, while it will be Georgia’s first time visiting College Station, Texas, since the Aggies joined the league.
Georgia does draw LSU at home in 2027. The Bulldogs last hosted LSU back in 2013.
One interesting wrinkle is that Georgia will play Florida in Tampa, Florida, that season. The 2026 game will be in Atlanta before the series returns to Jacksonville, Florida, in 2028.
How the league came up with everything
The league made it a point to create more balanced schedules. Not just when it comes to annual opponents — Georgia drew Florida, Auburn and South Carolina — but factoring in the entire schedule.
According to the SEC, the highest opponent average winning percentage for any school in the 2026-29 schedules is 55.67% while the lowest is 46.65%, a difference of only 9.02%. From 2020 through 2023 — when the league still used the divisional format — the highest winning percentage was 61.32% and the lowest was 39.76%.
In addition to nine conference games, the SEC stipulates that schools face one Power Four in its nonconference scheduling.
Georgia will satisfy that with its annual series against Georgia Tech. But the Bulldogs also have future Power 4 games against Louisville, Florida State, Clemson and Ohio State on the schedule.
For now, that is.
Nonconference questions still linger about 2026 schedule
With nine SEC games on Georgia’s 2026 schedule, the Bulldogs currently have 13 games set for next year. That obviously won’t fly, especially with a more balanced SEC slate.
Georgia previously scheduled games against Tennessee State, Western Kentucky, Louisville and Georgia Tech. One of those games will need to be dropped, and it almost certainly won’t be Georgia Tech, given the significance of that rivalry.
Alabama and Florida have already called off future Power 4 nonconference games in the wake of the league going to nine conference games.
In the past, Georgia has canceled games against Oklahoma, Texas and UCLA, to name a few. Those first two series were called off because of Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC.
We’ll see how Georgia’s next look conference schedule continues to reshape what Georgia does in its now three games against out-of-conference foes.
