The Mississippi State Bulldogs have canceled their future home-and-home football series with the Texas Tech Red Raiders, according to a report from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
The two schools were slated to open the series in Starkville on Sept. 9, 2028, with the return trip to Lubbock scheduled for Sept. 8, 2029. Mississippi State would have hosted the first leg at Davis Wade Stadium before traveling to Jones AT&T Stadium the following year.
Per the report, the cancelation stems from the SEC’s move to a nine‑game conference schedule beginning in 2026. The Big 12 has operated under a nine‑game format since 2011, following the departures of Nebraska and Colorado.
Despite the expanded league slates, both the SEC and Big 12 still require members to play at least one Power conference opponent outside of league play, bringing the total to 10 Power opponents each season. Mississippi State does not have another Power opponent scheduled for 2028 or 2029, and with the SEC’s rotation giving the Bulldogs five road games in odd‑numbered years, the program likely opted to drop the series.
Texas Tech is also left without a Power opponent in both seasons and will need to secure a replacement.
The move continues a wave of nonconference reshuffling across college football. Earlier this week, NC State and South Carolina mutually canceled their future home‑and‑home due to the new nine‑game formats. Last month, it was revealed that Texas Tech and Virginia Tech had canceled their 2034-35 series. NC State has also seen future matchups with Florida (2026, 2032) and Georgia (2033-34) removed from the schedule.
Other high‑profile series scrapped over the past year include Cal-BYU, Georgia-Louisville, Miami-South Carolina, Alabama-West Virginia, Nebraska-Tennessee, Ole Miss-BYU, Ole Miss-USC, and Cal-Florida.
Football Schedules
it keeps getting worse
Yes it is.
SEC wants a nine-game schedule you are going to expect more cancellations Georgia-Clemson could be next however Georgia-Clemson would make an excellent CFP game.
Dan come up with your own stuff I’ve talked about this for awhile
Bottom line reason I am no fan of Georgia-Clemson because I do not want to wait forever for that game to be played & it’s becoming downright difficult to schedule these P4 OOC games now with nine game conference schedules becoming the new normal in CFB.
It’s funny… fans of other schools (including SEC and Big 12 schools) made fun of Texas for pointing out that, if they hadn’t played a big game against Ohio State, even with the Florida loss this season, they would have been in the playoff with a 10-2 record and wins over A&M, Vanderbilt, and OU. And now Texas is sticking with their marquee opponents (so far… obviously we’ll have to see about the Notre Dame) while everyone else is dumping their big non-conference games.
It’s sad… I feel like we all wanted some sort of playoff for the FBS, but the way it’s been constructed it’s kind of making college football way worse. And yet, they’re going to keep going deeper into it. A 24-team playoff basically means the regular season barely counts. Conferences barely count. There will probably be some fun games in the mix, but probably fewer than the number of fun games being canceled right now.
I’m a huge college football fan… I never thought that would change, but they’re doing their best to try to change it.
Shut up about Texas missing the CFP for losing to Ohio State. They were left out for losing to Florida who was horrendous and rightfully so. Even if they had played someone else and went 10-2 they still shouldn´t have been in because of the Florida loss.
1) the loss to Florida was terrible but not as bad as Alabama’s loss to Florida State and Bama got in at 10-
2) you’re missing my point. You can hate on Texas all you want… it’s always trendy to do so… but the point is, whether *you* believe they were punished for losing a tough out of conference game or not doesn’t matter that much. Other Power 4 athletic departments DO believe it’s what happens. That’s why there are so many newly dropped games. Why risk it? In fact, they may believe it even more than Texas since Texas said “if” this is how it works, then we’ll see. They have said they will not drop their next 2 marquee opponents and they’ll wait and see on whether to drop Notre Dame later. (And they were one of the few P4 schools who actually showed up and took their non-playoff bowl game seriously, unlike all the examples of sour grapes…) Meanwhile everyone else is rushing to the exits on the games that would be their equivalent of playing Ohio State out of conference. Tell THEM it wasn’t the Ohio State loss that sunk Texas’ playoff hopes.
This cancellation is so much simpler than that. Mississippi State and Texas Tech both have 5 conference games on the road in 2029 (unless the Big 12 flips Tech’s schedule in 2029 – that conference schedule has not been released). Both schools want 7 home games. With each having 5 conference road games they cannot play the series as scheduled.
This is a consequence of the 9-game schedule. An SEC team with 5 conference road games will not play a team from another 9-game conference that plays 5 conference road games the same year AND wants to play 7 home games each year.
It’s not that Power conference teams will not play non-conference games against other Power conference opponents – it’s that they will not play them in circumstances where one or both teams will be left with just 6 home games (or in some cases, home revenue games, e.g., Georgia vs Florida).