After years of speculation and discussion, the SEC announced Thursday that its members will play a nine-game conference football schedule beginning with the 2026 season. That means each SEC team will also play three non-conference games each year, down one from previous seasons.
Following that announcement, speculation began regarding which future non-conference contests would be canceled among those that that were already contracted, primarily for the 2026 season. Of the 16 member schools, only three need to cancel or reschedule a non-conference game next season.
Schools with four non-conference opponents on the books include Arkansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi State. Georgia was also reportedly among that group, but a reported contract with the Tennessee State Tigers has not officially been signed (as of August 12 when our correspondent last checked with Tennessee State University).
Earlier this month, we reported that the Kentucky Wildcats had scheduled a fourth non-conference opponent for next season. According to the copy of the contract obtained by FBSchedules.com via a state open records request, Kentucky was set to host the Kent State Golden Flashes at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky., on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026.
However, we…cough…cough…overlooked a clause in the contract that specifically stated that if the SEC moved to a nine-game conference schedule, the game would automatically be rescheduled for the 2030 season. Below is the language from the contract, which was executed on March 24, 2025:
4. The HOME TEAM agrees to pay the VISITING TEAM the sum of $1,600,000 as a guarantee for playing said game in 2026, payable upon completion of the contest. Should the Conference of the HOME TEAM dictate that KENTUCKY play 9 conference football contests moving forward, this agreed to 2026 match up would defer to September of 2030 for a sum of $1,800,000.
With the Kent State game now moved to 2030, Kentucky is down to the required number of non-conference opponents for the 2026 season. Barring any other changes, the Wildcats are slated to open the season at home against the Youngstown State Penguins on Sept. 5. Later in the season, the Wildcats will entertain the South Alabama Jaguars on Sept. 26 and the in-state rival Louisville Cardinals on Nov. 28.
Stay tuned for more future schedule changes in the wake of the nine-game SEC football schedule. Should the ACC follow suit and switch to nine games as well, even more changes would be forthcoming. To date, 13 of 17 ACC members would need to adjust their non-conference slates for next season by removing a game.
Teams currently in the clear currently include Boston College, Pitt and Wake Forest with only three games each, and Stanford with just two scheduled games. However, those schools are not subject to open records requests and could have other games slotted.
Football Schedules
I see Wake just added NIU to their 2026 schedule but I haven’t seen any posts about it.
That game was rescheduled for 2026 a long time ago but was not listed for some reason.
https://fbschedules.com/2021-northern-illinois-wake-forest-football-game-pushed-back-2026/
EDIT: Never mind, I just removed it again. Apparently NIU bought out of the game when they scheduled Arizona for the same season. I have never received a copy of the cancellation, however. See page 90 of the PDF here:
https://www.niu.edu/board/_pdf/meetings/2023/bot/4-3-2023-bot-meeting-board-report.pdf
Kevin, if I believed in a God, I’d say you’re doing God’s work.
What about the KentSt@Ky 2028 game?
What about it?
A conference with an odd number of teams can’t play an odd number of conference games and still have each team playing the same number of conference games. It’s just math. The ACC has 17 football teams, and can’t play a 9 conference game schedule.
Right. They are reportedly working on that issue.
Explain—you’re only playing 9 of the 16 opponents. Would games against Notre Dame, the cugh…cough..18th member, count?
Nonsense. Each team has 16 opponents, you play two fixed rival games. For instance, Stanford could play Cal and SMU. That would leave 14 opponents, you simply play 7 home and away, then swap to the other 7 home and away. Using Stanford, vs Cal, @ SMU. Vs Pitt, @Syracuse, @NC @Miami, vs Virgina, @FSU vs Louisville. 27; @Cal vs SMU, @Pitt, vs Syracuse, vs NC, vs Miami, @Virgina, vs FSU, @Louisville. 28; vs Cal, @SMU, @BC, vs Duke, vs NCST, @Clemson, vs WF, vs VT, @GT. Every 4 years you’d play every team. Notre Dame would be a none con game, or they could become a full member and rework the schedule.
Notre Dame is excellent as an independent in Football & I really would want them to play various ACC opponents every Thanksgiving weekend & speaking of Thanksgiving weekend I want UCLA-USC to play last weekend of regular season every year permanently.
I like USC-UCLA giving us a fun game to watch during a weekend when many SEC teams aren’t giving us games worth watching. This still allows for ND@USC the last week- a tradion that I hope stays alive. UCLA can play Cal that day.
Total number of games to be played is
[(number of teams) x (games played per team)] / 2
This won’t be an interger if both numbers in the numerator are odd
[(odd number of teams) x (odd number of games each)] / 2
leaves you with a non-integer number of games to schedule.
17 x 9 / 2 = 76.5 games
My solution to the odd number problem: Notre Dame plays Stanford every year plus 6 (could be 4) additional ACC opponents every year and these games count. If you scheduled 6 plus Stanford for two years and 4 plus Stanford the third, everyone would host and visit ND once every six years.
Vegas Saxon Big Ten would really want to do all conference games on Thanksgiving weekend & my solution would be Notre Dame-USC to play in mid-season on third weekend in October at both South Bend & L.A. .
I really miss the UK/UL game being the first game of the season! It always provided a great “chatter” subject for the summer & super hype in anticipation of the coming “throwdown”!!!
Should SEC go all conference games on Thanksgiving weekend I really would want to see Kentucky-Louisville & Georgia-Georgia Tech play at the time when OOC games are fully commonly played in September.
Georgia has played Georgia Tech as the last game of the regular season since 1927.
Except of the 2020 year.
Don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
Clemson and South Carolina have played the last game since 1962 (except 2020). Again, I don’t see that changing and there is absolutely no call by anyone for them to play earlier in the year.
Anyone claiming otherwise is dreaming.
HeyArnold! I am not dreaming however I am very blessed & happy that my dream came true with SEC going to a nine-game conference schedule & I really want to be very mindful of any changes that will occur with SEC new format.
Thanks for the clarification.